The Child Without a Digimon
by Seth Turtle
Summary: In a world where everyone has a digimon for their own use, a girl without one of her own may be the only person who can save all Digimon from their worst enemy ever - human society.
1. Everyday Schoolgirl

WARNING: Set after Episode 50

WARNING: Set after Episode 50! If you haven't seen the end of Digimon Season 02, do not read!!

When the evil that was Malomyotismon was destroyed, the two worlds became intertwined like never before. Humans and digimon alike began to bond on a global scale. In the next twenty-five years, the number of digidestined would increase to the point where everyone in the world had a digimon partner.

Except, for one girl.

--- Center for Digiworld Studies ---

"What can we do, mister...?" asked Mrs. Yasushi, who was clutching her husbands arm progressively harder.

"Izumi, ma'am," the man answered. "And to tell you the truth, I'm not sure what we can do. I've never heard of a case like this. I didn't know there were still people out there without a digimon partner."

"Please, you must do something!" pleaded Mr. Yasushi. "We don't want our daughter becoming an outcast because of this! Please, we'll do anything!" Mr. Izumi motioned for them to calm down, as their daughter was just outside. She was sitting at his desk and sadly playing solitaire with some real cards (something people rarely did anymore since it was on just about every computer). She didn't seem to hear what they were saying, thankfully.

In a whisper, Mr. Izumi continued. "Tell me, what have you done so far to remedy this? Nothing drastic, I hope."

Mrs. Yasushi shook her head. "No, nothing drastic, sir. We've taken her to the Digital World a number of times, but on every occasion no digimon has appeared for her. Other than that, we don't know what else we can do."

Koushiro nodded. "I see. So the Digital World is not responding to her presence." He walked to his computer and started punching away at the keys. "Interesting..."

"Have you found something?" asked Mr. Yasushi hopefully.

"Possibly. I'm going to have to talk to your daughter, alone, if that's alright."

Both parents immediately agreed. "Yes, yes of course Mr. Izumi. Whatever you say." They both scurried out of the room to relay the message to their daughter, while Koushiro "Izzy" Izumi thought of what this might mean.

It didn't take long for Naki to arrive. She looked like the average schoolgirl from Japan- she was short, had dark black hair that went down to her ears and deep brown eyes that lacked the spark of life that most youths had. She was dressed in the uniform of her school- a plaid skirt with knee-high socks and a brown button-up top. She was wearing thin-rimmed glasses that reminded the man of an old friend of his. When she was at Koushiro's desk, she bowed politely and waited for him to speak.

"Hello Naki, I'm Dr. Izumi, but you can call me Izzy," he said, hoping to relax her. She only nodded wordlessly. Apparently, she was relaxed more than enough.

"Please sit down," Izzy instructed. The girl complied. "Now, your parents tell me that you haven't found a digimon partner. Is that correct?"

"...Yes, sir," she replied softly. "It's because I'm a freak, isn't it?"

"No, of course not," replied Izzy. "Who told you that?"

"My brother," she replied meekly. "He and his friends say that I'm a freak because no digimon likes me enough to want to be with me."

"Your brother doesn't sound very nice. In any case, he's wrong. I'm sure there's a digimon out there just waiting to meet you."

Naki looked up at Koushiro for the first time since she arrived. "...Really, sir?"

He nodded. "Absolutely. If you help me, I may be able to find out why it hasn't arrived yet. I just need you to answer some questions for me."

Naki nodded nervously. "...Yes, sir."

Koushiro pulled out a notepad and pencil and held them in his lap. "Naki, how many times have you been to the Digital World?"

"...I don't know exactly."

"Just round it off. About how many times?"

She looked towards the ceiling and silently mouthed the number sequence as she quickly counted in her head. After a while, she answered, "About thirty times, sir."

"And of those times, how many times have you seen a digimon?"

"Every time, sir. I enjoy watching the digimon play."

"So you like digimon then?" Koushiro asked with a smile as he jotted some notes down.

Naki nodded several times. "I like digimon a lot! I like the wild ones the best though."

Koushiro's eyebrow arched. "Why's that, Naki?"

"All the kids I know just use the digimon to fight with each other. When I see how much the digimon get beat up, it makes me angry." She clenched her fists angrily. "Especially my brother. All he ever does is fight. I can't believe his Betamon has stayed with him for so long!"

"Not everybody uses their digimon to fight, Naki. Some people do, I admit, but most digimon just want to be friends with the humans and don't like to fight."

Naki jumped to her feet. "Then why do I always see people using their digimon to fight?! It's not just the kids. I've seen lots of people use them to fight for stupid reasons! They even hold tournaments for that stuff now! It makes me so mad to see them treat the digimon like mindless animals!"

Koushiro couldn't disagree there. Lately, it had become popular to use the digimon to compete in various competitions for their human friends. One league in particular used the digimon to fight each other for the sake of an annual money prize. At first it was reserved for the younger children, but eventually the craze caught on with the older people as well. Most of the digimon enjoyed a good fight, but lately it was getting out of hand. In one case, a digimon actually was destroyed during a particularly brutal battle between the reigning champion and the number one competitor. The digimon came back, of course, but it was still a grisly thing to behold. Now, various world superpowers were starting to get ideas about using digimon as soldiers against terrorist countries in the third world. They reasoned that if digimon were immortal, they would have nothing to fear from war. Koushiro thought it was sickening, but there was little he could do. Even if the Digital World had become opened to all, the world was still the same as it always was- filled with greedy, dangerous people.

"Naki, I realize that you don't enjoy the way some people use their digimon, but you don't have to be that way."

"But if I have a digimon, people will expect me to use it that way! My father and mother want me to be like my brother, the star Digimon Battler, but I don't want to! I'd rather not have a digimon if that's what they want me to do with it!"

Finally, Koushiro understood. The reason why she didn't have a digimon was simple- she didn't want one. She cared too much about the digimon to want it by her side. Well, she _did_ want it by her side, but she didn't want it to fight. She just wanted a friendly digimon like everyone else.

"Naki, I know how you feel," Koushiro said finally.

"Huh? You do?"

He nodded. "Yes. A long time ago, I knew a girl who was just like you. She didn't want to fight at all, and she hated the way others fought. She would have preferred if everybody got along."

Naki smiled. "Really? What did she do?"

"At the time, there were a lot of evil monsters trying to destroy the worlds, so we had to fight. We didn't want to, but we had no choice. It took her a while, but she learned that fighting was okay, if you were fighting for what's right. She chose to fight to save her friends, and to save the Digital World. Afterwards, she and her digimon partner were just fine, and never regretted a single moment of their fight for what was right."

Naki's face turned sad once again. "But... what do I have to fight for? The Digital World isn't in trouble, and I don't have any friends in need of help. I have nothing to fight for."

Koushiro put a reassuring hand on the girl's shoulder. "Don't worry. I'm sure you'll find something worth fighting for. Just give it time. Until then, you and your future digimon partner should just do what you want to do, and don't worry about what everyone else wants you to do. If you don't want to fight, don't fight. It's as simple as that."

The girl smiled and bowed respectfully. "Thank you very much, Mr. Izumi. I won't forget what you said."

"No problem," he replied, bowing as well. "If you need anything else, tell your parents to call me." He handed her a simple card with his name and phone number on it. "I'm sure you'll be just fine."

She smiled again and waved goodbye as she walked off. As she left, Izzy's memories drifted back to the time (and the girl) he spoke of. For the next few minutes, nostalgia took over, and there was nothing he could do but smile.

****

Friday nights were always pizza night, so everybody made sure they were home on time when the clock struck seven. Mom's homemade pizza was better than anything the fast food places could cook was, and everybody in the Yasushi family agreed on this. Tonight they were having pepperoni- Naki's favorite. Of course, that meant her brother hated it.

"Why do we have to have pepperoni tonight!" complained Tohru, Naki's brother. He was only a year younger than she was, but he acted as if he were five years younger. When he wanted to be, he could be a spoiled brat, but usually he did things on his own just to prove he could. He didn't do well in school, but the power that he and his Betamon friend had was enough to make him extremely popular. Last year, Betamon reached the top four for the local Digimon Battling tournament, and it was only his first try. This year, Tohru and Betamon were the heavy favorites to win.

"You know the rules, son," said his father warningly. "Last week you chose the pizza, this week Naki chooses. Fair is fair."

Tohru glared at his sister, who was calmly eating her slice. "Can't you pick anything new? If I eat one more pepperoni I'll spew!" Naki didn't dignify that with an answer.

"Tohru, don't say that at the table," said his mother. "Eat your supper. You have to be well rested for the tournament tomorrow."

"I know, mom," said the boy angrily. Tohru started to munch on his pizza, ever so slowly, while Naki talked with the two digimon already at the table- her father's digimon, Tokomon, and her mother's digimon, Nyaromon.

"So how was your day, Nyaromon? Did you do anything fun?"

"I learned how to bake cookies with your mom," she answered. "If I ever get real hands, maybe I'll make some." Naki giggled.

"I hope you never do," said Tokomon jokingly. "The day you bake cookies is the day I stop eating."

"Just you wait!" said Nyaromon as Tokomon and Naki laughed. "I'll make cookies so good that you'll be begging me for a taste, but you won't be allowed to have any! Only Naki and I will!"

"I'll get some too, right?" said Mr. Yasushi.

"Traitor!" said Tokomon. Again everyone laughed.

"I'm done," said Tohru. After taking his third and final bite of his only slice of pizza, Tohru took the plate into the kitchen and put the contents into the fridge. It'd make a good snack for Betamon later.

"Betamon's not eating?" asked Naki.

"He had a big lunch," said Tohru as he walked past the table. "He and I have to go to sleep early so that we'll be fully rested for tomorrow's trial runs. Good night Mom. Good night Dad."

"Night, son," his father replied. His mother said good night as well.

"Good night, weirdo," the boy said to his sister just before sticking his tongue out. She gave him an angry stare, which made him chuckle. He ran off before she could retaliate with an insult of her own.

For the rest of the meal, she ate in silence. Tokomon and Nyaromon looked at each other sadly, because unlike her parents they both knew how much that comment hurt her.

****

When Naki wanted to go to the Digital World, she always had to go with someone else. Usually she didn't want to go, for the reasons she told Mr. Izumi. However, today she felt like heading to the other world for the whole day. With the Digimon Battling tournament taking place, just about everybody was at the stadium where the competitions were held. When Naki asked her father to take her to the Digital World, he had to say no.

"Please?!" she pleaded.

"Don't you want to watch the games with your mother and I?"

She most definitely didn't, especially since they would spend most of their time cheering for Tohru. "...No, I'd rather go some place quiet. Could you just drop me off or something?"

"I don't think so. There's some dangerous digimon out there, and if you were alone..."

Tokomon pulled on Mr. Yasushi's pant leg. "I could go with her. I don't mind." Naki smiled when she saw this. Tokomon was always so nice to her. He was like a sweet old uncle, even though he wasn't that old- only twenty or so.

"Are you sure you don't mind, Tokomon?" Naki's father asked again. 

Tokomon nodded. "Of course. No problem. I don't like all this loud noise anyway."

"Me neither," said Nyaromon as she and Mrs. Yasushi walked over. "Can I come too?"

Naki smiled. "Can the three of us go, father? Pleeease?" she said in her most innocent voice. Nyaromon and Tokomon did the same.

The softhearted father couldn't resist much longer. "Weeell. Alright."

Naki and the digimon cheered and ferociously hugged the man, who laughed at all the attention he was getting all of a sudden. His wife laughed as well, and helped free him from the three rambunctious ones. 

"There's a phone terminal over here," he said. "We can use it to open the gate." The three dashed over to where the terminal was, while Mr. and Mrs. Yasushi followed at a more sedate pace. When they finally arrived, Mr. Yasushi pulled out his digivice (or "D3" as this model was often called) and pointed it at the computerized phone terminal.

"Digiport open!" As usual, the gate between the digital world and the real world opened up, waiting to be used by whomever needed it. People walked by without giving it a second thought, since everybody with a digimon had a digivice. Only those who are too young or who are mentally handicapped don't have digimon or digivices because they can't "think" the right way. This made most people assume that Naki was handicapped in some way, but her near-perfect schoolwork proved otherwise.

"Now be back at the gate at five o' clock sharp," said Naki's mother. "In fact, be there ten minutes earlier just to be safe. And don't get hurt or lost. Nyaromon, make sure she keeps her jacket on at all times, and-"

"Whoa, slow down Rina!" said Nyaromon, using the mother's first name like she used to when they were still young. Mrs. Yasushi smiled when she did this, and Nyaromon did the same. Rarely did she go by Rina anymore; usually it was just Mrs. Yasushi or "mother". 

"Relax," said Tokomon. "Everything will be just fine. We promise."

Naki's father smiled. "Okay. Just be careful, and don't forget. Five o' clock."

"Yes, sir!" said Tokomon mockingly. He leapt into the open digital gate and disappeared in a flash of light.

"Come on Naki," said a smiling Nyaromon, and she leapt into the digiport as well.

"See you at five!" said Naki just before leaping into the digiport. When she did, the gate closed behind her, and the terminal returned to normal.

"Let's get going," said Mr. Yasushi. "The games start pretty soon." He headed towards the stadium, but he noticed his wife not following. She remained fixed on the terminal that had served as the gate moments before. The father walked back and looked at his wife in worry. "Honey, what's wrong?"

It took a while, but she eventually answered him. "...I don't know. I have a bad feeling. I think something bad's going to happen."

"That's just because you're a mother," he replied. He put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry. She'll be all right. Tokomon and Nyaromon will make sure she's okay. They'll be rookies again once they are in the Digital World."

Slowly, Mrs. Yasushi nodded. "...I guess you're right." She looked at him and smiled lightly. "Okay, let's go cheer for our son." With that, the two headed to the stadium, only mildly worried about their daughter, and blissfully unaware of what the future held for their child.


	2. A Trip to Primary Village

The trip through the gate was quick and flashy as always. Naki remembered when she first traveled through that gate with her parents when she was five. To her it was like riding a roller coaster for the first time. At first she thought she was going to die, but soon she grew to enjoy it. By the twentieth trip, it had become just another way to travel, like riding a bike or bus.

Naki and her two digital companions materialized in the midst of their family's favorite spot in the Digital World- a multi-colored forest near a lake in the center of Server. It was right next to Primary Village, though the family rarely went there since Tohru and his Betamon always scared the baby digimon. The trees around her were full of crumpled leaves ranging from a deep auburn to a dark red, or even golden yellow. Since it was autumn, most of the leaves were on the ground like a patchwork blanket. There was a light breeze sweeping through the trees, causing what leaves remained on the withered branches to sway with the wind. With the bright golden sun shining down through the fluffy white clouds, it was almost too beautiful to believe.

"Ahhhh, I just love this fresh air," said Patamon, the digivolved form of Naki's father's Tokomon. Next to him was Salamon, the digivolved form of Nyaromon. She too inhaled the clean air deeply, and let out a sigh of pleasure. 

"Yes indeed," Salamon replied. "I don't think I'll ever get used to Japan's air. It's too dirty."

"Same here," said Naki. "I love the air in the Digital World." Naki smiled as she took a deep breath and held it inside, as if to squeeze every last drop of contentment from it before slowly letting it out. "It's always so...calming."

"Hey, let's go see if Elecmon's out today!" cheered Salamon, acting as if she were a kid again. She ran ahead of the others, practically falling down the grassy hill the TV/gate was located on. Patamon and Naki just looked at each other, smiled, and followed her as quickly as they could.

As Naki had expected, the Digital World was essentially empty today. With the big tournaments just starting in the Real World, practically everybody was at one stadium or another, cheering on their favorites as they competed for the chance to enter the city finals (the one Tohru almost won last year), then the country-wide level, and finally the national games. This would happen over the course of a few weeks, so the Digital World would be free of most people for just about a month. Naki hated it when hundreds of people were in the Digital World, primarily because it scared all the wild digimon away. At least today she and the digimon would have some privacy.

After the three raced through the trees to the nearby river, they came upon a small group of baby digimon playing in the shallow banks. There were two Koromons, a Motimon, and a Punimon, each smiling cheerfully. They appeared to be having a water fight (with help from their Bubble Blows), and it looked like the Motimon was slowly winning. Naki giggled at the display of playfulness, especially when Salamon jumped into the river with them and started splashing around.

"Sometimes I wonder about her," muttered Patamon as he watched this.

"If you have something to say 'Piggy'-mon, come and say it to my face!" she said playfully, sticking her tongue out at the other digimon. Naki smiled, because she knew Patamon hated when she called him that. Ever since they and their human partners became friends nearly twenty years ago, she called him that when she felt like annoying him. Both Naki and Salamon thought he looked funny (and cute) when he got mad. As Salamon expected, Patamon dove into the water and started a wrestling match with her. The baby digimon joined in and sided with their favorite competitor, and an all-out splash party ensued. Everyone participating laughed joyously, while Naki watched from the grassy (and dry) bank.

"What's all the commotion?" asked a familiar voice. Elecmon walked down the riverside until he was next to the human girl. "Naki! How are you young lady?" he greeted.

"Very good, thank you," she replied. "Why don't you take a break with us?"

Elecmon smiled. "Sounds like a good idea." The digimon took a seat right next to Naki, and watched as Salamon pounced on Patamon in a splashy display. The old digimon laughed as he saw this. "Those two could be my age, and they'd still act like kids."

Naki smiled in agreement. "They tell me that Mom and Dad are like that too, but I don't believe it myself."

"Everybody is a child at some point. Even me."

"You?!" Naki said in mock shock. "I was sure you were born a doting grandmother."

"Very funny. I hope you're not as cruel to your digimon as you are to a poor old man like me," he said jokingly. He remembered too late about Naki's "problem", and instantly regretted saying that. "I'm sorry Naki. I didn't mean to-"

"It's okay," she replied quickly. She leaned back until she was lying in the soft grass and looking up at the blue sky. "I think I'll be getting a digimon soon."

"Huh?" the red-and-purple digimon said. "Why do you think so?"

Naki closed her eyes and took a deep breath like the one from before, and released it the same way. Finally, she answered, "I'm not afraid of having a digimon of my own anymore."

"Why were you afraid of having a digimon?"

"I was afraid that if I had one, I would have to fight all the time like my brother does. I didn't want to see any digimon get hurt, especially one under my care. For a long time I prayed every night that I wouldn't get a digimon, because of that fear. Even after I became friends with all the digimon I met, like you, I hoped that I didn't have one of my own."

Elecmon nodded. "I understand. I feel the same way."

"You do?"

"Of course! I take care of all the baby digimon until they hatch. The last thing I want to see is them getting hurt. That goes for all digimon, and all people too."

Naki folded her hands behind her head. "I don't care too much about people getting hurt, but digimon are another story. They don't try to get into fights...or wars, like humans do. They don't fight for stupid reasons like money unless they have too."

"You make it sound like digimon are slaves," said Elecmon. "We can make our own decisions, you know."

"_*sigh*..._I know, but all the digimon I see listen to their human "friends" almost all the time. I think they think of friendship differently then people like my brother and his friends do."

Elecmon got on his feet and slowly stretched. "That they do, Naki. That they do." Elecmon padded over to the edge of the river, where Patamon had successfully pinned Salamon. "You guys want to come and eat an early lunch?"

"Sure!" said Patamon happily. "I just love a good meal after a victory." He looked down at Salamon and did his best fake, evil laugh. "Mwahahaha! I have conquered you, pitiful puppy thing!"

Salamon managed to get him off her as he continued to chuckle. "If you didn't weigh so much, I would have pushed you off sooner."

"Oooh, sore loser," said the smiling Patamon. "Save your harsh words for the next match, little lady." The digimon avoided a playful swipe from the other, and flapped his wings until he was safely in the air.

"Don't worry Salamon," said Naki as she picked her up. "He may have won, but he doesn't have your gracefulness."

"Who needs gracefulness when you look as good as me?" he replied from above.

"You're right. Who needs gracefulness when you look as good as Babe." Naki giggled, and Patamon groaned in defeat.

****

Elecmon gathered together the food he had prepared for lunch, and began dispensing it to the baby digimon. The babies hungrily accepted the food and gulped it down at an incredible rate. Their caretaker chuckled and continued down the line, assisted by Naki and the other two rookies.

"Man, this brings back too many memories," said Salamon as she balanced a basket of food on her head while trying to keep the babies from trampling her. "I remember trying to keep Tohru under control. That kid could crawl faster than I could say 'digivolve'."

"Really? You guys helped take care of Tohru and I?" Naki asked curiously.

"Sure," Patamon answered as he flew above with a basket of fresh apples. "We were living with your parents, so we ended up being with you guys so much that it just happened. I guess you could say we grew attached to you two."

"Well, at least Naki at any rate," said Salamon. Both digimon laughed.

Naki continued to hand out some food, but her thoughts were drifting to the past. "What was I like as a baby?"

Salamon smiled as she remembered two-year-old Naki Yasushi. "You were such a cute baby. Quiet, happy..."

"Stinky," added Patamon. Salamon giggled, while Naki made pouty lips to show her displeasure. Patamon smiled as he flew over to get another basket of food for the babies who hadn't eaten yet.

"It was fun watching you grow up," continued Salamon while she took a break. "You were the kind of girl I imagined Rini being like before I met her."

"I remind you of Mom?"

"Very much. She was shy and smart like you, and just as pretty."

Naki blushed. "I'm not that pretty."

"Oh no?" Patamon said as he finished handing out food. "I'm surprised you don't have boys knocking on the door every night." Naki smiled and turned even redder, and Salamon jokingly made catcalls. Luckily, Elecmon came and saved her from even more embarrassment.

"You guys ready to eat?" he asked. "All the babies are fed."

"Yeah, I'm starved," said Patamon as he landed next to Salamon.

"You're always starved," she added.

Elecmon chuckled. "I'll fix up a warm meal for us. I'll get the fire ready. You two get the food." He turned to Naki. "Naki, could you get some water?" he asked, motioning to an empty pail nearby.

"Sure, no problem," the girl replied. As the others went about their tasks, she picked up the pot and headed towards the river.

(_Naki...)_

As Naki headed towards the river, she started to whistle a little ditty she had heard on the Internet. It was one of those songs that once you heard it, it would be stuck in your head forever.

_(Naki...)_

Naki finally reached the river, and methodically kneeled at the bank. She dropped the pail into the water, scooping up and dumping out water to help clean out the old gunk left in it.

_(Naki...I can feel you...)_

The girl paused in her actions as a strange, almost imperceptible voice touched her ears. She looked up and scanned the trees around her as she tried to identify the voice, but she saw nothing around her.

_(Naki...come to me...)_

"Who's there!" the girl cried fearfully. She dropped the pail and stood up quickly as she tried to find the source of her fear, but again she saw nothing. The voice sounded as if it was echoing from upriver, so the girl (rather foolishly...) tiptoed along the stream to see if she could find out what was calling to her.

_(Yes, come to me Naki.)_

"Who are you?" she asked softly as she continued sneaking towards where she believed the voice to be. She looked left and right as she tried to find it, but it was difficult to see without the sunlight. Where had the light gone? Everything looked so gray...

"Hello?" she called out again. Her voice didn't go very far, as there was very little to rebound off of. She couldn't see very far ahead of her because of the rising fog, which made her worried. She decided that it might be better to get the others before proceeding further. Unfortunately, when she turned around, she saw fog as thick as what was before her. She was lost.

_(Do not be afraid, Naki.)_

"Why are you calling me?" she asked. "W-where am I?"

The voice seemed to be closer than it was before. _Do not worry Naki. You are safe with me. I have been waiting a long time to meet you._

"Me? Why do you want to meet me? Who are you?"

_I am the one you've been trying to find. I am your digimon._

Naki's heart skipped a beat. "What?! How can that be?"

_I have been trying to reach you for a long time, but you haven't heard me calling to you until now._

"Why didn't you just appear to me?"

_Something is trying to keep us apart, Naki. I can't reach you on my own. I need your help if we're to be together._

Naki was so happy that there was actually a digimon for her that she didn't think twice about it. "How do I help you?!" Suddenly, an icy cold wind blew over her, making her shiver. She saw the fog thin a little, and she glimpsed something she had seen once before in her lifetime- a luminescent butterfly. She only saw it for an instant before the grayness and fog closed around it.

_He is trying to separate us again_, the voice said quickly. Again, the grayness and fog parted, and the color-filled forest appeared once again. The color started to spread, dispelling the cold fog around her. _Naki, don't go!_

"Wait!" she cried, but before she could speak again, the last of the grayness disappeared. She was back at the river flowing past Primary Village, just a few yards away from the pail she dropped. Although she had left the dark place, she was still shivering from the experience.

****

When Naki returned to the tiny village, Elecmon started cooking their meal. Most of the babies were asleep now that they had a hefty meal, and the others were quickly getting tired. Soon, it would be just the three digimon and their human companion. By the time the last baby was asleep, Elecmon finished cooking and handed out bowls of the delicious stew he had made.

Salamon took a deep whiff of the steaming bowl of stew, and smiled contently. "Mmm... I'd take this over those ballpark hotdogs they sell at the stadium any day."

"Same here," replied Patamon, already eating despite the fact that it was very hot. It seemed not to bother him. "Good stew, Elecmon."

"Thank you, sir," the other digimon said, smiling proudly. "Do you like it Naki?" When the girl didn't answer, Elecmon looked at her with concern. She was staring off into space with a worried look. Patamon and Salamon noticed this too.

"Naki?" said Patamon. The flying digimon went over and tapped the girl on the shoulder, which brought her out of her trance. "You okay, dear?"

"Oh, uh...yes, yes I'm fine," she answered quickly. She picked up the spoon Elecmon had provided for her and started eating her stew. She smiled when she tasted the meal. "This is delicious!"

Elecmon smiled again. "I try my best when I have guests." He started eating as well, and the meal proceeded this way for a while. This worried the digimon, because normally Naki was very talkative around her digimon friends.

(Hey,) whispered Patamon to Salamon. (What's up with Naki?)

(I don't know. She's a lot quieter than usual.)

(Did we say something?)

(I can't think of anything.) Salamon looked at her again, and examined her face with an eye as trained as her real mother's was. (She's worried about something.)

(How can you tell?)

(It's my job to know these things,) she replied with a smile. (If you weren't always busy carting stuff between the house and the store, you'd know that too.) Patamon smiled in amusement as Salamon walked over to Naki. Again she was staring off into space.

"Naki, is something wrong?" she asked. Of course she knew something was wrong, but that was the traditional way of starting a conversation of that nature. It was the way you found out whether the kid was willing to talk or not.

Naki frowned. She knew Salamon would know if she were hiding something or not, so she decided to be truthful with her. The question was, how would she tell her what happened when _she_ didn't understand what happened? She said the only thing she could say.

"N-nothing's wrong," she said with a fake smile. "I'm just daydreaming."

Salamon played along, of course, but her eyes showed her heavy concern. "You sure?"

"Positive." Naki scratched Salamon's ears to help relax the digimon. Salamon closed her eyes and smiled, despite her worry. The human smiled as well.

Patamon watched this go on as well, but something else caught his eye. He glanced towards the upper portion of one of Primary Village's giant bouncy blocks, and stared curiously at a flock of luminescent butterflies. Most digimon didn't know exactly why those things existed, but everyone knew that they meant good luck for whoever saw them. It was rumored that they were the eyes of a guardian spirit, but which spirit was unknown. Seeing these butterflies only meant one thing to Patamon, who had seen them many times before- prepare for trouble.


	3. Digidestined

"I can't believe you're actually considering this!" yelled the politician to the rest of the United Nations council. "Drafting digimon into the military is totally immoral! They shouldn't be forced to fight if they don't want to!"

"Mr. Kamiya, please calm down," said the United States representative. "We understand that you have a unique perspective when it comes to digimon, but you know as well as any of us that we are heavily lacking in resources. The cost to fund troops, technology, and maintenance is far too high for most of my colleagues to maintain. However, we all know that digimon possess the power to strengthen themselves naturally via digivolving, with the use of only digivices. If we were to take advantage of this, the cost to fund all aspects of the military would dramatically decrease."

"That may be true, but you can't force digimon into the military!"

"Mr. Kamiya is correct!" shouted the representative from Japan. "Digimon have the right to choose their own fate!"

"If they are sentient beings, then they are subject to the same laws and responsibilities as humans," said the representative from Canada. "Besides, the draft is necessary if we are to compete with the Digimon forces in Iraq."

"It is rumored that they have several digimon capable of combining to become a Mega-level digimon," said France's representative. Tai's eyes widened. 

"That's impossible!" said the German representative. "Nobody can do that!"

Tai frowned. Nobody has been reported to have a Mega-digimon, and the only DNA digimon that existed belonged to his friends. No "true" Digidestined had surfaced since the days that the second team was still fighting. Everyone with a digivice could enable a digimon to digivolve to the Champion level at the highest, but nobody could go higher. If Agumon and Gabumon could digivolve to their Mega-forms, then none of this "digimon drafting" would even be considered. Even Paildramon, Ken and Davis' DNA digimon, had lost his ability to Mega-digivolve. That was something that worried Tai immensely. The power of the Digicore that Gennai had given the Digidestined during the battle with the dark forces had worn off a long time ago. By then it wasn't necessary since nearly all of the evil forces in the Digital World had been dealt with, but it still would have been nice to have that power still in case something turned up. Tai couldn't help but think that the world was left wide open.

"Drafting digimon without drafting humans is nothing more than racism!" yelled the English representative. "Even if doing this would save lives, forcing digimon to fight in the place of humans is nothing short of hypocrisy!" A few other representatives, including Tai, cheered their support. 

"The digimon were created by _our_ Internet!" yelled the Belgian representative. "They are a creation of _our_ technology! It is our right to use them as we see fit!" More representatives cheered in agreement.

"Racist!!" shouted yet another representative. At this point, a general melee of shouts and angry words ensued, until finally the council leader called for order.

"I will not allow another outburst in this council! This is your last warning!" Everyone remained silent. "That's better. Now, we will begin voting on this matter tomorrow. Is there any other business to attend to?" Nobody called anything forward, so the leader swung his hammer twice. "Then this meeting is closed."

Tai gathered his papers and headed out the room as quickly as possible so that he didn't blow up in anyone's face. This whole matter had him fuming! Ever since the American ambassador had suggested using digimon in the military to save human lives and resources, the controversial issue of whether to allow digimon the same rights as humans had been raging for months. After months of work, it had all come down to this, and Tai was sorry to say that it didn't look good.

Tai went to his car without talking to anybody. Usually he would hang around the building to chat with fellow ambassadors, but today's meeting made him especially edgy. During the short drive to the hotel he was staying at, Tai thought about what the various representatives had said about digimon. It was crazy to think that they would consider digimon to be their property rather than living beings. Even though they had digimon of their own, they considered them little more than smart pieces of human technology, like a toy robot dog or something. Every now and then Tai would see people like that in person, and watch as they disregarded their digimon's thoughts and feelings in favor of their own. Tai would always have to resist punching the person's lights out, especially since he's an ambassador and was expected to live by certain standards.

Tai got out of his car and entered the reserved hotel used by many of the ambassadors during meetings with the United Nations. He nodded to a friendly bellhop, who did the same. Tai nodded to the bellhop's digimon, a Gazimon who enjoyed his work just as much as his human friend.

"How's it going today guys?" Tai asked as he got some quarters from his pocket and inserted them into a vending machine.

"Not to bad Mr. Kamiya," the bellhop answered. 

"I can't complain," the Gazimon added, stifling a yawn. "And you?"

Tai groaned. "It's been a long day. Playing soccer for three hours straight doesn't make me this tired." The vending machine dropped a Pepsi in the bin below, and he reached down to grab it.

"Agumon's had a long day too," said the Gazimon. "All day long he's been going back and forth from the Digital World."

Tai looked at him curiously. "How'd he do that? He can't use my digivice without me."

The human bellhop smiled. "I had some spare time, so I helped him out. Gazimon and I enjoyed the breaks."

Tai smiled too. "Thanks guys." He reached into another pocket and pulled out two American five-dollar bills (he had some foreign currency for the trip) and handed one to each. The bellhop and his Gazimon smiled brightly and bowed as Tai went up the stairs to his room. He knocked a few times, since this hotel had auto-locks on the doors.

"Agumon, it's me."

"Okay, just a second," said the digimon inside. A few moments later, the door opened to reveal a sleepy looking Agumon. Tai smiled at the digimon and walked into the room, closing the door easily behind him.

"You look beat," Tai said as the digimon walked back to the room's one big bed that the two shared.

Agumon jumped onto the bed and lay on the bed, already half-asleep. "That's because I _am_ beat." He looked over at Tai, who was undoing his necktie. "You look beat too."

Tai laughed at some inside joke. "I still can't believe that meetings are making me this tired. Maybe I'm just getting old."

"Boring stuff always made you tired." Agumon folded his large claws behind his head and stared up at the ceiling fan. "Are they still talking about that draft?"

Tai angrily tossed his jacket across the room. "Yes! Those goons still haven't given up on that!"

"Relax," Agumon said as he yawned. "Thing's will work out."

"I hope you're right," Tai answered as he fell onto the bed as well. He looked at the digimon curiously. "How can you be so calm?"

"I'm too tired to be worried about anything right now."

"Why are you so tired? What've you been doing in the Digital World all morning?"

Agumon rubbed his eyes. "I had a bunch of messages to deliver."

"Couldn't you have just used the computer for that?"

"...I had a gut feeling. I needed to be in the Digital World."

Tai looked at him with concern. "What?"

Agumon shook his head. "It's probably nothing. Maybe I'm just homesick."

"Maybe." Tai too started to yawn then looked at his watch. "I think I'll take a quick nap before giving the others a call. What do you think?"

_*snore*_

Tai smiled. Agumon's answer was pretty clear.

****

Kari frowned while she listened to her brother's words. Even though Tai didn't actually tell her what was said in the meeting that he had this morning, she could tell from the sound of his voice what was happening. Her dream of a world with digimon and humans coexisting peacefully was becoming less and less a reality.

_"This whole thing has really gotten to me. I wish I could just punch the other representatives' lights out."_

Kari giggled. She may have been 36, but her laugh still sounded as petite as ever. "I can imagine. 'Tonight, on CNN, Digiworld Ambassador KO's the UN council.'"

Tai laughed too. _"Yeah, that would be a little embarrassing."_

"Just a little," Kari replied sarcastically. "Anyway, politics aside, how are you and Agumon doing?"

_"Not bad. We don't get to relax that much sense we both have a lot of work right now, but we're still cheerful."_

Kari could hear the sound of steady snoring in the background, but the vid-phone didn't allow her to see the bed. "Agumon must be really tired. He never snores."

_"I know. He's been running around all day, delivering messages. If he had just used his e-mail he wouldn't be out like a light."_

"Why didn't he use it?"

_"I don't know. He said something about 'needing to be in the Digital World'."_

Kari grew a little worried. "That's strange. Gatomon was talking like that too. Every chance she got, she tried to get me to take us to the Digital World."

_"Really? Did she talk with Agumon at all today?"_

"No, she was with me. It may be a holiday because of those-"

_"DON'T say it,"_ said Tai sourly.

"Sorry. Gatomon was with me doing paperwork for my class next week. We didn't get a call from any of the digimon all day."

_"Not even on your D-terminal?"_

"Nope."

_"Weird...I wonder if the other digimon were anxious like this too. If they were then we might have a problem."_

"Do you want to call them?"

_"Definitely. You call TK, Davis, Cody, and Yolei. I'll talk to the others."_

Kari loaded her address book and started flipping through the pages. "I hope they're not busy."

_"I don't care if they are or not. This is much more important. Oh, I'd better hang up. *beep*"_

"Bye T-" she started to say. But before she could finish, he had disconnected.

****

_"Yeah, Gabumon was acting the same way. He was real jittery."_

"Is he there with you?" Tai asked.

_"No, he's in the simulator. He'll be done in a few minutes."_

Tai groaned. "When he gets out, ask him what's going on. I'm going to call Izzy."

_"Okay, see ya."_ Matt disconnected, and Tai instantly started linking to Izzy's address.

Over on the hotel bed, Agumon groggily sat up. "Mmph...What time is it?"

"Four o'clock," Tai answered. "You sure were tired, weren't you?"

"Staying in the Real World too long does that to you," Agumon said as he stretched. "One day we're going to have to take a long break in the Digital World."

"I could go for that," said Tai with a smile. The vid-phone connected, and Izzy's visage appeared on the screen.

_"Hi Tai, this is an unexpected pleasure,"_ he greeted.

"Izzy, I need to talk to Tentomon! Is he there?"

The other man looked confused, but shook his head. _"No, he's not."_

"Well where is he?!"

_"He wasn't feeling to well, so he went home. He was saying something about being really tired."_

"Him too huh," said Agumon as he yawned.

Tai's eyes half-closed, as he became more intense. "Why was he tired? Did he do anything today?"

_"Not really. He went to the Digital World to get some samples for me, but other than that he's been taking it easy."_ Tai and Agumon looked at each other.

"Maybe he's not tired like I am," said Agumon.

"Maybe you're not tired like you think you are." Tai turned back to Izzy's image. "Izzy, we might have a problem!"

_"What kind of problem?"_

"Something weird is going on; I can feel it. The digimon aren't acting normal."

_"I haven't been reading anything strange on my systems. The Digital World seems to be fine. Why would the digimon be acting up?"_

"I don't care what your machines say Izzy!" said Tai. "Remember what Gennai told us? The data on the Digital World can be changed from the inside."

Izzy's eyes widened. That had slipped his mind. _"That might be true, but we don't know for sure."_

"There's only one way to find out," Tai said. "Tell the others; we're heading to the Digital World!"

----------------------------------------------------------------

****

(A/N): Ugh...short chapters. Oh well, it's not that big a deal; I'm just used to longer stuff I guess. Anyway, next time, the digidestined reunite for one last mission, and Naki discovers the truth about her digimon and herself.


	4. Past and Future

"Okay Tai, this better be important," said an annoyed Sora Ishida. "I'm missing a very important design session for this."

"You're not the only one who had to cut out of work early for this," added Cody.

"Look, I know you're all busy but this might be an emergency!" said Tai angrily. "Something isn't right with the digimon."

"'Something isn't right'? You dragged us out of work and you don't even know what's wrong?" growled Davis.

Veemon yawned deeply. "Don't argue Davis. He's just worried about us digimon."

Davis looked hurt. "And I'm not?"

"Just tell us what the deal is," said Yolei. "I've got housework to do."

"Okay, just calm down," said Tai. "I'm not sure why yet, but the digimon don't have as much energy as they should. Agumon thought it was just because they've been in the Real World for so long, but he and Tentomon have both been in the Digital World today."

"Yeah," agreed Matt. He looked at his partner Gabumon. "You were complaining all day about feeling tired."

"I was, but it's nothing to call an emergency about."

"It's the same with all of us," said Biyomon. "Just because we're feeling a little tired doesn't mean the world's coming to an end."

"I wouldn't be to sure," said Izzy. "Do you feel any different now that you're in the Digital World?" The digimon paused for a moment, but they didn't feel anything different from before. They told their human partners this.

"Maybe it's just old age," suggested Joe. "They are nearly thirty years old. They might just not be as spry as they used to be."

"Digimon don't age Joe," said Izzy. "At least, not in the same way humans do. Aside from digivolving, the body of a digimon doesn't change from birth to... rebirth."

"Then what could be causing the problem?" Mimi asked, looking at the drowsy Palmon with worry.

"That's what we're here to find out," said Tai.

****

After they finished eating lunch, Naki and the two digimon with her spent a sizeable portion of the afternoon napping in the Primary Village. Patamon and Salamon were noticeably tired despite the fact that they had rested well the night before. They tried to hide this from Naki, since they knew she had more she wanted to do, but she insisted to them that it was okay. For a few hours, Naki remained with the two digimon until the peaceful environment coaxed them into a deep sleep.

When Naki was sure they were asleep, she got up and sneaked out of the Primary Village as best she could. She knew Elecmon would have stopped her from leaving if he knew the digimon weren't with her. Luckily, she escaped without anyone noticing. When she was by the river once again, she cautiously walked to the spot where the voice had spoken to her.

"Hello?" she said softly. She looked left and right, but nothing appeared. "Are you here?"

_*twinkle*_

"Huh?" Naki looked to the source of the noise, and she was surprised to see the rainbow-colored butterflies that she saw before.

**_"Hello, young lady."_**

Naki gasped in surprise. She didn't think they could talk! They were way to small to be a digimon...and it sounded as if all the little butterflies were talking in chorus.

"W-what are you?"

**_"A more appropriate question would be 'who' am I. My name is Owikawa."_**

"Owi...kawa?" The name didn't sound familiar, but just saying it made her feel awe for the 'person'. "Are you a digimon?" The voice chuckled, and the multitude of glowing butterflies fluttered their wings, causing glitter to twinkle through the air. It was so beautiful that Naki almost didn't hear his answer since she was so lost in its splendor.

**_"Sometimes I wish I was, but I'm not quite one of them. It's a little complicated to explain, but I used to be human."_**

"Human? How can that be?"

**_"Like I said, it's complicated. Let's just say that in the Digital World, wishes sometimes come true in the way you least expect. Of course, that's what I'm here about."_**

"What do you mean?"

**_"I know that you are looking for your digimon. But please...no matter what, you must not find him."_**

Naki frowned angrily. "What?! Are you serious?!"

**_"Please, believe me. You cannot let this digimon go free. Even if he's your digimon, he cannot be controlled."_**

"I don't want to control any digimon! I just want a friend!" She turned and started walking down the riverside once again. "Besides, trapping a digimon is cruel, and I don't like people who are cruel to digimon! I'm not going to listen to you!"

**_"Wait, you don't understand!"_** Before Owikawa could continue, a chill wind blew through the forest. The glowing butterflies suddenly burst into a cloud of glitter, but Naki didn't notice. Owikawa's presence was banished from the forest, preventing him from warning her any more.

"I'm here!" Naki shouted to the trees. "I know you are too! Show me where you are, and I'll set you free!" There was no answer from the voice she hoped to hear, but the breeze grew chill and thick with a light fog.

"Can you hear me?!" she called out. "I'm hear!"

Suddenly, the ground began to rumble. The sky began to dim as the light was pushed away. Naki knew this wasn't natural, but she wasn't afraid. She knew she was supposed to be, but somehow it felt as normal as a rainstorm. Above the sound of the earth's shaking, Naki heard a voice call out to her.

_(Naki! It's you!)_

Naki smiled when she heard it. "Yes, it's me!" she shouted back. "I'm here!"

_(Naki, help me!)_

"I don't know how!" she called out. The rumbling grew stronger, and she had trouble standing. She fell to one knee and used one hand to keep steady. "How do I set you free?!"

_(I can feel the force trapping me weakening! Just keep doing what you're doing! )_

"What...I'm doing?" Naki looked around her. The sky above was totally dark, and the earth below was shaking violently. She never would have guessed it was something she was doing.

_(Come on Naki...concentrate...)_

Although Naki still didn't know how she could possibly be doing this, she obeyed. She was willing to do anything if it meant setting this captive digimon free. If he really was _her_ digimon, it was her duty to save him...no matter what it took.

The girl closed her eyes, crossed her fingers and focused as hard as she could.

****

From the top of a very high cliff, Ken could make out something definitely out of the ordinary... and strikingly familiar. "Hey everyone, look!"

Everyone joined him at the cliff edge, and looked off towards the horizon. In the distance, a massive cloud of darkness hung over a patch of forest. Bolts of lightning struck the land under it, causing trees to burst into flames. Even as far away as they were, they could hear the rumbling that was resulting from whatever was happening down there. Although to most of them it looked like just another oddity of the Digital World, it was much more to Ken, Kari, and TK.

"Do you feel that?" Ken asked softly. "It's... the darkness."

"How can that be?" said Kari fearfully. "That place can't touch the Digital World anymore. We saw to that."

Patamon and the other digimon were shivering. The tiny digimon said ominously, "Something is trying to break free. Something... powerful."

"That's impossible!" said TK. "Who could be strong enough to break through a barrier as strong as the one we made?!"

****

Naki could feel something happening around her. She concentrated on her one objective as hard as she could- free her digimon. She didn't know how or why, but her will was strong enough to make her wish come true. The ground was shaking like the stronger earthquakes she'd felt in Japan in her short life. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stand up. She gave up trying, and simply focused on her thoughts, and the voice of her digimon.

_That's it Naki! You're doing it! I can see your light!_

_"My...light?"_ she thought. Indeed, she was glowing, although she didn't know it. Around her there was a bright, silver light that illuminated the overwhelming darkness. Several yards in front of her, a pinprick of light of the same color could be seen. The dark clouds above her crackled with even more lightning, as the pinprick of light grew steadily bigger.

****

"What's that?!" Sora pointed at the spectacle below. Everyone could easily see the silver light that had appeared out of nowhere.

"I don't know, but I bet it's what's causing all this!" shouted Tai. "We've gotta get down there!"

"Right!" said the others. They pulled out their digivices and D3's, and the digimon prepped for the digivolving. Even though it had been years since they last done this, it was as Tai once said, "just like riding a bicycle".

Biyomon, digivolve to... Birdramon!

Gatomon, armor digivolve to... Nefertimon, the Angel of Light!

Hawkmon, digivolve to... Aquilamon!

Patamon, armor digivolve to... Pegasusmon, Flying Hope!

Tentomon, digivolve to... Kabuterimon!

Veemon, armor digivolve to... Raidramon, the Storm of Friendship!

Just at that moment, the silver light seemed to grow noticeably brighter for a second. Only Ken noticed this, but he attributed it to his imagination.

"Hop on everybody!" said Aquilamon. "It's been a while, but we're ready if you are!" Once two digidestined were seated on each flying digimon along with the digimon who didn't digivolve just yet, the team leapt into the skies and headed for the source of their discomfort.

****

Naki felt a sudden surge of warmth flow through her body. It felt so comforting, and it made the pain forming in her temples from straining so hard instantly disappear. With renewed strength, she concentrated with all her might. The rumbling grew almost deafening, and although her eyes were closed Naki could see a very bright light growing in front of her. It was like staring into the sun with your eyes closed, only instead of orange and yellow it was pure, silvery white.

Naki knew it might not be a good idea, but she had to see what was happening. Slowly, she opened her eyes slightly. She was still squinting against the glare, but she could make out a dark shadow in center. It wasn't just any shadow; it was something humanoid. It was shorter than she was, and obviously not human. It had a long snout, as well as clawed hands and feet, both of which were working hard. It looked almost as if the creature was pushing at the sides of the silver light before her, but Naki found that hard to believe. Despite the violently shaking ground making it difficult to move, the girl managed to run forward and try to help the shadowy figure through.

"Naki, it's you!" the creature shouted. It was the first time Naki had heard it's true voice. It was music to her ears.

"Hang on, I've got you!" she shouted. She clung to the small digimon with all her might. Her arms were chilled to the bone on the other side of the silver portal. It felt as if something was holding the digimon, but Naki didn't dare stick her head through to see what was there. If she did, it might try to take her as well.

"Don't let go!" the digimon growled as he tried to get free. Naki locked eyes with the tiny creature for the briefest of instants, and she discovered what it was she was holding. The Agumon looked into her eyes as well, and smiled as if he approved of what he saw.

"You're an...Agumon," she said with awe.

"Naki, hurry! The gate is shrinking!"

Naki returned her attention to the situation at hand. "I'm trying! I'm sorry but I'm not very strong!"

"Just focus! If you focus hard enough, your crest will do the rest!"

"My what?!" she cried.

"Trust me!" the Agumon said. "Just focus, quickly!"

Naki didn't argue. Still holding on to the digimon as hard as she could, the girl concentrated. Almost immediately, right in the center of her chest, a silver light appeared. It quickly spread outwards, and soon it reacted with the gate.

****

"We're almost there!" shouted Davis from Raidramon's back. "In just a minute, we'll be-"

Davis was interrupted by a sharp intake of breath by the passenger behind him. He could feel Tai's grip weaken as something grabbed his attention. Amazingly, it seemed like Tai's chest was glowing!

"What the heck is that?!" shouted Davis when he saw it. Just like Tai, the other older digidestined had glows coming from their chests. Even Kari and TK had strange points of light!

"What's going on?!" cried Mimi.

"This isn't what I think it is, is it?" said Palmon when she saw the shape of the light on Mimi's chest.

"It looks like their crests!" exclaimed Gomamon.

"They can't be!" shouted TK. As crazy as it was to suggest it, the glows really did _feel_ like their old crests. But that was impossible; their crests were spent permanently at Gennai's request a long time ago to help protect the Digital World.

"What does it mean?!" Sora asked.

"Look!" shouted Yolei. She pointed to their destination. They had flown close enough to see the scene in more detail. They could all see a little girl, clinging to what looked like a dark-colored Agumon. She seemed to be covered in a glow much like that of the strange silver light before her. After a few moments, the others realized what was happening before them. Something from the Dark Ocean was moving to the Digital World!

"Little girl, stop!" shouted Tai. His "crest", and the crests of the others, grew dimmer as they neared, while the silver glow grew much stronger. There was a noticeable surge in the strength of the light. At the same moment, Raidramon and the other flying digimon seemed to falter, causing their riders to scream momentarily.

"Hey, what gives Raidramon?!" shouted Davis. "I know it's been a while, but you can't forget how to fly that easily?!"

"I'm feeling a little... woozy," complained Raidramon.

"Me too," added Birdramon. The massive bird's eyes shut, and for a moment she stopped flapping in mid-air. Gravity took over from there.

"Birdramon!!" cried Sora from the digimon's back. "What're you doing?!"

"Wake her up!" cried Mimi. The woman clung to her long-time friend so that she wouldn't fly off. Palmon, the digimon who had been more than a friend to her for an equally long time, clung to Mimi the same way.

"Kabuterimon, get her!" shouted Izzy. The insect, although woozy as well, dove earthward after the plummeting digimon. As they went down Izzy motioned to Joe and Gomamon. Following his lead, they climbed as close to Kabuterimon's head as possible.

"Heeeeelp!" shouted Sora. "Birdramon, snap out of it!" The bird obviously heard her, since she was struggling to regain her bearings. Unfortunately, she didn't have the energy to break out of her vertigo entirely. The effect was a random glide that made it difficult for Sora, Mimi, and Palmon to maintain any balance whatsoever. 

"I've got you Mimi!" shouted Palmon.

"What good will that do?!" she cried back.

The ground was rapidly approaching, and at the speed Birdramon was falling at, it was near impossible for her to stop. At this speed, it would undoubtedly end with a spectacular crash that none of them would walk away from. In anticipation, Sora shut her eyes, while Mimi and Palmon simply clung to each other.

"Don't worry ladies!" Suddenly, Kabuterimon zoomed under the other Champion level digimon. "Help is here!" Using his massive bulk, the insect digimon got under Birdramon and got into position for what was to come. Using all the strength he had in him, the insect digimon flapped his translucent wings to try and slow the decent as much as he could.

"Brace yourselves!" shouted Izzy just before the two digimon crashed into the ground. The collision was massive and painful, causing dirt and rocks to spray everywhere. Thanks to Kabuterimon's efforts, the impact was light enough that the humans survived, although they were knocked away a few yards or so. Birdramon, aside from the precarious position she and Kabuterimon were in, was totally unaffected by the fall.

"Sora!" shouted Matt as Pegasusmon landed. As the others joined them as quickly as possible, Matt ran over to where his wife crashed. He cradled her in his arms, and tried to coax her awake. Tai purposefully avoided the little scene and went to where Izzy and Gomamon ten yards away.

The red-haired man groaned as he tried to get up. "Ughh... now I know why none of the Digidestined were as old as we are." He slowly stood up, his back cracking the entire way. "Or maybe it's just me whose out of shape."

"That was a crazy stunt you guys pulled," said Tai as Gomamon and Agumon went to help Joe up. "Luckily, it seemed to work. Kabuterimon's armored hide didn't get a dent in it."

"Yeah, but I would have liked it to be less climactic." Sora, Joe, and the others were finally revived, just as all the digimon had finished reverting to their Rookie forms (or Champion form in Gatomon's case). Once everyone was ready the team ran the rest of the way to where the silver light was.

"Come ooooon!" they heard the girl cry as they approached. She was still struggling against some invisible force, but thanks to whatever opposing force was on her side she was on the brink of freeing the dark Agumon. 

"Little girl, stop!" shouted Davis. "You don't know what you're doing!" The last leader of the Digidestined ran to her and tried to separate her from the digimon, but the instant he touched her he was enveloped by a bright red glow and launched backwards. He flew through the air and landed in Ken and TK's arms, causing them to fall as well.

"Whoa!" exclaimed Yolei. "Did _she_ do that?!"

"I hope not," muttered Tai. He and the others watched with deep-set fear as she wrenched the digimon free from the Dark world, just as the silver portal shut with a loud thunderclap. As she and the dark Agumon collapsed on the ground, the rumbling of the earth ceased and the dark clouds above parted, revealing a blue sky once more. All was silent. Nobody present, human or digimon, said anything because they were staring at something in the Agumon's possession. Actually, two things, neither of which they thought could possibly be there if they weren't seeing it with their own eyes.

One was a black-colored digivice of an unknown design. The other, was a similarly colored tag and crest.


	5. Questions

--------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Black Agumon

Data Size: 20Level: Rookie

Summarized Analysis: Aside from much darker colored hide and a less friendly temperment, this Agumon is not much different than their vaccine counterparts.

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"One of these days I'm going to have to update this thing," Izzy muttered. "My daughter could have told me that much."

"The Digimon Analyzer _is_ over thirty years old you know," Tentomon said. "Even for such an advanced program as this, that's a long time."

"Once this is all over, that'll be the first thing on my to-do list."

Tentomon sluggishly flew into the air until he was along side the man. Both looked at the screen, where a picture of a black-skinned Agumon was depicted alongside the information of the analyzer. It almost exactly matched the other, save for the fact that they had no idea of its temperment just yet. Both it and the girl that Izzy remembered from their last meeting had been asleep ever since that event in the Digital World. During that time, the first and second team of Digidestined had been trying to piece together exactly had happened. So far, they hadn't figured out much. As usual, Izzy was expected to know exactly what was going on, but so far he had been silent on the whole subject. The others were anxiously waiting outside, but Izzy seemed to have forgotten everything outside of his lab at the moment.

"Should we call her parents?" Tentomon asked as Izzy tapped a pen on his desk in a methodic one-two pattern.

"...Yeah," he answered. Tentomon waited for him to say something more, but he didn't.

"Well, I'll just go do that then," he said before turning to fly towards the vid-phone. He paused to see if Izzy would say something in reply. Again, nothing. Tentomon gave up and flew over to the machine, leaving Izzy by himself.

_It can't mean what I think it does,_ he thought. He leaned back in his chair and looked over at the main table in his lab. On it, two objects were placed methodically in the center. They were the two devices that the digimon had arrived with, presumably to give to the girl. Despite them being right there plain as day, Izzy couldn't believe they were there- especially the crest.

_ Our crests don't have any power in them, yet they suddenly sprang into being. This girl, who supposedly hasn't made a connection with a digimon, suddenly acquires a tag and crest of her own, and even gets a new model digivice unlike anything I've ever seen._ Izzy remembered a day long ago, when he was taking care of Poromon for Yolei. That was also the day that he and Ken first connected on some level. They had talked about advanced theories in various fields of science, particularly psychology. Izzy had told him about his theory on the D3's, and how his came into being as a response to young Ken's need for a powerful weapon against the original model digivices. It was this act of forced evolution that also caused the second team of kids to acquire these newer models when the time came, as a way to combat the Digimon Emperor. The whole thing was a bit complex, and it took Azulongmon a while to explain it to the younger Digidestined when he first appeared to them. Ken had later relayed the information to him, though he knew most of it already. It was to be expected. Everything evolves to grow stronger.

And that's what this was all about. As much as he didn't want to admit it, they may have witnessed the greatest threat ever being born.

****

"Is she hurt?!" shouted Mrs. Yasushi through the vid-phone. Her and her husband had been watching their son and Betamon on the battling field, when they had gotten a message to call Mr. Izumi's lab. She had nearly had a heart attack when she heard that Naki had been caught in an "accident". She was even more worried when she heard that neither Patamon nor Salamon were with her.

The Tentomon she was speaking with, which she remembered meeting the last time they were at that lab, tried to keep her calm. "Please ma'am, don't worry!" he pleaded. "She's not injured or anything- just winded. However, something good may have come out of this."

"What do you mean?" she asked, suddenly very curious about what exactly happened.

"I'll explain it when you arrive," the Tentomon told her. "Come as soon as you can, please."

"Yes, yes of course!" she replied quickly before breaking the connection. She ran back to where her husband was talking with Tohru and Betamon about how well they did. When she arrived, the young boy had a smile as wide as the Tokyo Tower was tall.

"Mom, guess what! We placed first!!" he cheered. "Betamon and I are going to the city finals!!" Tohru and Betamon waited anxiously for their mother's response.

"Oh, uh, great job honey!" she said, trying to sound enthusiastic. Mr. Yasushi immediately noticed the odd tone in her voice. Something wasn't right. Tohru, being too excited to notice how worried she was, took it as an insult.

"Is something wrong dear?" Mr. Yasushi asked.

(It's about Naki,) she whispered. Both parents got worried looks, while Tohru simply grew angry.

"Um...why don't you get us some hot dogs son," suggested Mr. Yasushi, who handed his son some yen. Tohru saved his anger for later, and calmly took the money and headed to the nearest hot dog stand with Betamon following. When Tohru was gone, Mr. Yasushi asked her what she meant. His wife relayed the news she had heard to him.

"My god...is she alright?"

"Mr. Izumi's digimon said she's not injured, but he said we should go to his lab as soon as possible."

"Did he mention anything about Patamon and Salamon?"

Mrs. Yasushi gasped. "He said they weren't with her." Her hands clasped tightly around her husbands. "You don't think they were..."

"If Naki was caught in an accident of some kind, they must have gotten separated. They would never let her go any place dangerous by herself."

"Are you sure? What if they were caught in the same accident?"

Mr. Yasushi thought for a moment. "Hmm... you go ahead and go to the lab. I'll go to the Digital World and look for the digimon. Take Tohru with you."

Mrs. Yasushi nodded. "Okay dear. Be careful." After a quick kiss between them, her husband ran off towards the nearest computer terminal. Tohru saw this from his hiding spot nearby.

(Why does Naki have to ruin everything?!) he complained. (We win the competition, and Naki has to get hurt just to get more attention!)

Betamon looked at him like he was nuts, but didn't say anything. He may have been Tohru's partner, but he didn't have a clue why he acted the way he did. Naki had told him once it was a "brother-sister thing", but Betamon never did figure it out. As far as he was concerned, it was better just to let Tohru complain. It would get out of his system eventually; it always did.

Unfortunately, Tohru had no intention of forgetting this. As far as he was concerned, his sister had gone too far. She had to pay.

****

_(Naki...)_

"Unnh...whose there?"

(It's me. Your digimon.)

"My...my digimon! Y-you're real!"

(Yes. I'm as real as you are.)

"But...what's happened to us? Why can't I see anything? My whole body is numb."

(Don't worry, we're just sleeping. You and I have had a hard afternoon.)

"Well...what do we do now?"

(Your body should be fine soon. I'll wake up as soon as you do. We are very closely tied.)

"What do you mean? I know digimon and their partners are close, but I've never heard anything like that before."

(You and I aren't like everybody else. We are something else Naki.)

"Something else?"

(Yes. You have become what you want to be, in your deepest wishes.)

"You mean I've changed?"

(Not really "changed". You've just become what you were destined to be. That's what being a Digidestined is all about after all.)

"...Digi...destined? What is that?"

(It means that it is your destiny to change the fate of two worlds. The responsibility has fallen on you.)

"Responsibility? Change worlds? You must be joking."

(I've never been more serious. With me at your side, you and I will do what you've always wished to do.)

"And what's that?"

(We're going to save the digimon from humanity.)

****

The door to Izzy's lab had been closed for a long time, and the other Digidestined had begun to worry. The "child" of Knowledge was known to zone out for hours at a time when a particularly weighty problem was plaguing him. At the moment, the group was deciding who would go in and check on him at the risk of annoying him and prolonging their wait.

"He likes you best Cody," Ken reminded the young lawyer.

"No, he tolerates me the best," the young man replied. "He likes Mimi the best."

"What do you mean by that?" she said, showing off her "amazing mental capacity" that the others knew all to well.

"Uh, nevermind," Cody said simply. "Just a joke."

"I wonder why he's taking so long," said TK. "Those two can't still be asleep."

"I don't know," said Gatomon. "They're probably as tired as the rest of us, especially after such a big ordeal." The white-furred feline supressed a yawn and leaned into Kari as she nuzzled into a comfortable position.

"We still don't know what's causing this," said Kari sadly as she looked down at her best friend. "I think it's getting worse too." She looked around the room at all the digimon. All except Agumon, Gabumon, and Veemon were asleep. The three not sleeping looked like they would be hard-pressed to walk across the room. It was a miracle that the digimon in the room hadn't reverted to their in-training stages, but like Gatomon they had digivolved permanently (but only to their rookie levels).

Tai suddenly was inspired to try something. He reached over to Agumon and took his claw into his hand. The digimon looked at him with confusion, but Tai's eyes were closed in focus. Seconds later, the center of his chest was glowing a deep crimson as the symbol of Courage appeared.

"What the heck is he doing?" Davis asked in a mixture of surprise and awe. Nobody answered, as they were watching to see if it would work.

****

A sharp light shone from the main desk of Izzy's lab, disturbing the deep thoughts of the scientist. Slowly he looked over to see what the source of the light was. On the table, he saw the black-colored crest begin to glow immensely. It was too difficult to look at directly, so Izzy had to approach the desk with his eyes shielded by his hand. Once he reached the desk, he picked up the tag and crest. Rather than feeling the warmth he expected to feel, his hands grew icy cold.

_This is _not _good._

****

_(Do you feel that Naki?)_

_"What is that, Agumon?"_

(...)

"What's wrong? That is your name isn't it?"

(I don't remember ever being called that before, actually. It feels kinda strange.)

"I'm sorry. What do you want me to call you then?"

(Don't worry about it. Just call me Agumon I suppose.)

"Okay...Agumon. Now, do you know what that warmth is?"

(No, I don't.)

"Well, whatever it is, it feels good. I can feel the numbness going away."

(Good. I'm anxious to get to work.)

"I'll get to introduce you to my parents! We're going to have so much fun together!"

(...)

"Oh no...my parents! I forgot about Patamon and Salamon! Oh no...I'm in so much trouble!"

(Worry about that later. It's time for us to wake.)

****

As the glow on Tai's chest faded to nothing, the others let out a unanimous sigh. 

"Did it work?" asked Matt. All eyes were on Agumon.

The orange digimon yawned. "I don't think so. Sorry Tai."

Tai sighed as well, but he patted his friend's claw in consolation. "Don't worry about it pal. I guess our crests aren't as strong as they used to be."

Agumon sighed as well. "Yeah, I guess not."

The sliding door to Izzy's lab whooshed open, and Tentomon flew out with a fair amount of speed, considering he was close to passing out. The digimon said excitedly, "The girl and the digimon are waking up!" The humans picked up their digimon, sleeping or not, and ran into the lab as Tentomon led them to the waiting room where the two were sitting. Izzy was standing up with his arms crossed as he waited for the others. As everyone piled into the room, the girl and the dark-skinned Agumon watched with interest.

"Who are all these people, Mr. Izumi?" the girl asked drowsily.

"These are some friends of mine," Izzy answered simply. "They helped me find you and your Agumon."

The girl realized that she should introduce herself properly, so she stood up and bowed methodically to the group. "Hello. I am Naki Yasushi."

Cody smiled at this display of etiquette, and bowed the same way. "It's a pleasure to meet you, young lady." The others added their own greetings in varying levels of properness. After a quick run down of the names of each individual, Izzy had everybody sit down.

"Naki, would you mind explaining to us how you came to meet this Agumon?" Izzy asked in the professional manner his job entailed. "Just yesterday you were telling me that you didn't have a digimon partner of your own."

Naki nodded. "Yes sir, I know. But today, something strange happened when I was in the Digital World." She looked at the Black Agumon, who was busy looking at each person with much interest. "He called out to me for help."

"Really?" Izzy answered. "What did you need help for?" he asked the digimon. At first the digimon didn't realize he was being addressed, so he didn't answer until Izzy got his attention. He seemed reluctant to speak, as if he were shy.

"Please, tell us what the matter was," said Agumon. "You can trust us. We won't hurt you."

The Black Agumon eventually nodded. "Very well." His voice was much deeper than Agumon's, making him sound a bit threatening to the others. Naki didn't appear frightened however. The dark digimon continued, "I was trapped in the Dark world for a long time."

"Why were you there?" Gabumon asked curiously.

"I don't remember how I had gotten there, or why I was there," he answered. "I just knew that I was surrounded by evil monsters who were trying to get me. It was horrible."

"How did you manage to contact Naki?" asked Joe. "As I understand it, it's very difficult to reach the Digital World from the Dark Ocean."

"It is," confirmed Ken. "Almost impossible without a digivice."

"Yes. I never was able to contact Naki until today, when her digivice appeared to me."

"Her digivice appeared to you?" repeated Yolei. "Why didn't it go to her instead?"

The Black Agumon shrugged. "I don't know. Perhaps because I wasn't in the Digital World the device automatically went to me to help free me."

"Makes sense to me," said Davis. "Good thing you got it too. I wouldn't want to spend the rest of my life in the Dark Ocean."

Black Agumon's eyes thinned. "Yes. Neither would I."

Izzy reached into his pocket and pulled out the digivice and crest. He held up the digivice so that the others could see it, including the Black Agumon. It was definitely a digivice, evidenced by the digital screen on it and the buttons located around it that triggered its functions. Unlike the original models or the D3's, this digivice was shaped more linear, like a cell phone from the turn of the millenium. It seemed to be like a combination of the D3 and D-Terminal into one device.

When everyone was done admiring it, he handed it to Naki. "Do you know what that is?" he asked.

She looked at it silently for a long time, but she couldn't answer. "No sir. It looks kind of like a digivice, but it's different."

"Yes. I was examining it with this crest for a while, and I saw that it was a completely different model than the ones everyone else has."

The Black Agumon looked confused. "Crest?"

Izzy held up the black tag and crest in his hand for the digimon to see. "Yeah. You mean you don't recognize this? It was around your neck when you appeared."

This seemed to confuse the digimon even more, but he didn't comment on it. He simply looked at it curiously and seemed unsure of its presense there. "How can that be here?"

"That's what we want to know," Tai replied. "If it means what we think it means, then Naki isn't just a normal kid with a digimon. She's a Digidestined!"

Naki looked at him. "How do you know about that?"

"We're all Digidestined!" answered TK. "Or at least we used to be. Ever since the battle with Malomyotismon twenty-five years ago, we've lived normal lives like everyone else." Something about this seemed to make Black Agumon anxious, which his counterpart picked up on.

"So...what does it mean if I'm Digidestined?" she asked in confusion. "Agumon told me all about what my job is, but what does it mean? What makes me different from everyone else?"

"Well, for starters, you can digivolve your Agumon to Champion. Since you have that crest with you also, you can probably even reach the Ultimate level! Nobody has done that in a long time."

Naki was familiar with digimon, and she remembered how awe inspiring the true Ultimate level digimon was to her. It's power was immense compared to Champion level digimon. Supposedly an Ultimate could swat dozens of Champion digimon around like flies, but such power was unimaginable to her. She had always considered her parents' digimon to be powerful, but the highest they could reach was Champion. As she thought this, a strange feeling flowed through her. A feeling of...pleasure.

She wasn't a freak anymore, and she was going to show everybody what she and Agumon were made of.

****

****

NEXT: (Coining some lines from DBZ...) The sleeper has awakened. A Digidestined unlike any other, has been born. Stay tuned to see just what Naki is going to do now that the destiny of the digimon of the world is in her hands, and find out what the original Digidestined have to say about this new girl and her mysterious digimon.


	6. Truth be Told

When Naki's mother arrived at the lab, Izzy explained the situation to her. He didn't tell her about her daughter being a Digidestined, for fear of causing unnecessary and undesired problems. Instead he told her that the "accident" was a random natural phenomenon, and that Naki had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Mrs. Yasushi seemed to accept this, and was apparently just glad to know that Naki was going to be alright.

"Thank you very much," she said, bowing. "If it weren't for you I don't know what would have happened."

"Don't mention it, ma'am," he replied. The sliding door that led to the lab's restroom opened, and two figures walked out - one human, one digimon.

"Naki!" exclaimed the worried mother as she engulfed as she engulfed her daughter in a hug. The girl seemed surprised at this display of emotion, and couldn't react appropriately.

"What's the matter Mom?" she asked.

"What's the matter?! When I heard you were caught in an accident I was worried sick!" Again she glomped her confused daughter.

"Accident? What're you-" Before she could finish, she saw Mr. Izumi making a series of gestures. They were quick and a little confusing, but Naki got the general idea. Her mother didn't know what really happened. "Oh, oh yeah, the accident," Naki said quickly. "Right...don't worry Mom, I was okay."

Suddenly the mother grew angry. She let go of her daughter and gave her an accusatory stare. "Why weren't you with Patamon and Salamon, young lady?! Didn't we tell you to stay with them at all times?" She looked at Black Agumon disapprovingly. "And where did you find this strange digimon?!"

"You look pretty strange yourself," he replied crossly. Before Mrs. Yasushi could retaliate, Naki held the digimon's jaws shut and smiled nervously.

"He's just joking mother, honest! Right Agumon?" He didn't reply, vocally or otherwise.

Izzy purposefully cleared he throat, getting everyone's attention. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but if it's alright with you I'd like to do one more test with Naki. Just to make sure there aren't any long term effects from the accident."

Mrs. Yasushi stood up and unwittingly fidgeted with her purse. "If that's what you think is best, sir."

"Is that alright with you, Naki?" Izzy asked the girl.

She looked down at Black Agumon, who obviously wasn't enjoying himself. "Is it just one more?"

Koushiro nodded. "Yes, I promise. Your mother can take you home within the hour."

Naki nodded in compliance. "Okay. Is that okay with you Agumon?" The digimon looked up at her apathetically, and eventually nodded.

"Then it's settled," concluded Izzy.

****

Within a five-minute walk of the building Izzy's lab was in, a few human members of each team of Digidestined were eating an early dinner while discussing what to do about their digimon, who were all at home asleep. The group consisted of Tai, Matt, Sora, Davis, Joe, and Kari. Matt and Sora, however, were at another table eating by themselves and having a sweet, private conversation. The only one who seemed to care about this was Tai, who couldn't help but stare. It didn't take long for one of the others to notice.

(Hey Joe,) Kari whispered so that Tai wouldn't hear, but in truth he probably wouldn't have noticed a bomb going off in that restaurant. (Did you notice how Tai's been acting?)

Joe looked at his friend carefully, and nodded. (Yeah, he does seem a little preoccupied.)

(A little?! He hasn't taken his eyes off those two since we got here!)

(Are you serious?)

(Watch.) Kari quietly signalled to Davis to hand Tai's basket of fries (even in a fancy restaurant, he goes for the burger and fries...) to her. Davis complied, though he didn't think it was a good idea. Tai didn't even notice.

"Mmm...good fries, eh Tai?" she asked, taking a bite of one of his.

"Yeah," he agreed, nodding slowly yet still looking at the Ishida couple.

"Tai, I didn't order any fries."

"Uh-huh." Still looking.

"Tai, you're on fire."

"Okay." The unattentive Kamiya reached for another fry, only now realizing that his basket was gone. He looked angrily at Davis first (he always got blamed first), then at his sister. He snatched his food back while they laughed. Sora and Matt looked over with confusion.

"What's so funny?" Matt asked.

"Nothing!" said Tai quickly as he forcefully set his basket-o'-fries back where it belonged.

"Is something wrong, Tai?" Sora asked.

"No! You guys just enjoy your meal!" he ordered. The other three at the table held their breath and didn't move a muscle.

Sora and Matt both looked confused, but they nodded. "Uh...okay," the blonde answered unsurely. "Take it easy Tai." The two resumed their conversation, while Tai returned his attention to Davis, Joe, and Kari.

"What the heck are you guys doing?! That wasn't funny!" Tai said angrily.

"What's the matter with you?!" Kari hissed back. "Don't you know it's rude to stare?"

"I wasn't staring!"

"Tai, Greymon could have snuck past you and you wouldn't have noticed," said Joe. 

"Yeah, what's the deal?" Davis chimed in, only half-focused on the conversation.

"None of your business!" Tai retorted. He tried to end the subject by focusing entirely on his hamburger, but Kari didn't let him off that easy.

"Tai, I've been your sister my whole life. For the last thirty I've been smarter than you. You can't fool me."

Tai looked at her angrily as he swallowed a bite of his burger. "What are you talking about?!"

"I know that you still-"

Tai pointed at her quickly as a silent warning. "Don't, say it."

"Why not? Everyone here knows."

"No they don't!"

Joe nodded. "Sure we do. It's not that hard to figure out." Davis nodded in agreement and continued munching on his noodles.

Tai held his hands behind his sagging head. "Oh man...why does stuff like this always happen to me?"

"You two weren't serious. How can you still fell this way about her?" Kari asked. "And you're a married man!"

"Not only that, but she's married to your best friend," Davis added.

"Thanks a lot for reminding me Motomiya," groaned Tai.

"Tai, you have to relax," warned Joe. "You don't want to say anything you'll regret."

"I'm trying!" he barked in reply. "I know it's wrong, but I can't keep lying to myself. This is driving me crazy!"

"Just calm down," insisted Joe. "She'll here you if you get any louder." Tai forced himself to relax. Once Tai was calm again, Joe continued. "It's okay if you feel like that, but you have to realize that Sora doesn't love you anymore like you do. She loves Matt now. Whatever you and Sora had when we were kids is gone now."

"But I don't want it to be gone!"

"Don't want what to be gone?" asked Sora as she and Matt joined them at their table.

"Uhh, nothing, nothing!" Tai insisted.

Sora looked confused. "Then what were you guys talking about just now?"

Tai looked at the other three for help. "We were talking about...uh..."

"Our crests!" said Kari quickly. "Tai doesn't want our crests to be gone! Eh heh heh..."

"Well, that goes without saying," said Matt as he gave them all a strange look.

"Is that it, Tai?" Sora asked. "Why wouldn't you want us to hear?"

Tai was sweating bullets. "I uh...didn't want to worry you guys about something so trivial. Worry is contagious, you know!"

The blonde raised an eyebrow, causing Tai even more discomfort. "Whatever you say Tai."

_*phew*_

"Have any of you tried using the crests again?" Sora asked.

Joe shook his head. "After seeing Tai's failed attempt I wasn't anxious to try."

"Me neither," agreed Matt. "It looks like they aren't as strong as they used to be."

"Then why did they even reappear?" Kari wondered. "If we can't use them, what's the point of having them?"

"Good question," said Tai. "I think that it has something to do with that girl. None of this stuff with the crests started until we found her in the Digital World. Plus she has a crest of her own."

"It doesn't make any sense," said Matt. "Why make ours reappear with no power if she has a fully functional crest?"

"Maybe they're handing the jersey over to the new player," suggested Davis. Nobody had a clue as to what he was talking about.

"Come again?" Matt said.

Davis took a drink of his soda and sighed with satisfaction. "When you replace a player on a soccer team, the old player has to was the jersey and give it to the new player. At least, that's how it worked on my team."

"We had a pretty cheap team," muttered Tai, remembering when he was on that same team.

"What does that have to do with our crests Davis?" Sora asked.

"Maybe your crests are just being handed over to her, but are just being fixed up first until they are where they need to be."

"That doesn't sound likely Davis," said Joe. "That's not how the changing of the guard works, so to speak."

"Actually, that may not be too far from the truth in this case." Everyone turned to see Izzy walking to their table. The redhood took the last available seat.

"So how's the girl?" Sora asked. "Is she doing okay?"

Izzy nodded. "Yeah, she and Black Agumon are doing just fine." Looking at Sora's plate of leftover sushi, he asked "Are you going to finish that?"

She giggled and handed him the plate. "No, help yourself." Izzy thanked her and hungrily dug in. With all the work he had been doing today, he forgot to eat.

"Black Agumon..." Kari repeated softly. "When you say that, it makes me think of someone else."

"Me too." They didn't say the digimon's name, but they all knew what digimon they were referring too. BlackWargreymon, the dark digimon who had helped them in their final battles as Digidestined.

"You don't think they're related, do you?" Davis asked.

"There _are_ more virus type Agumons out there," Izzy answered. "There's a chance that it isn't him."

"But...what if it is?" Kari wondered. "Would he remember us?"

"He doesn't seem to remember anything prior to entering the Dark Ocean," the scientist replied. "All he knows is that he and Naki are meant to be partners. He doesn't even recognize the crest he came with, so I'm not sure if asking him about it would help. It'd probably just confuse him."

"Izzy, you said that what Davis said about the crests isn't too far from the truth," said Joe. "Were you serious about that?"

Izzy took a drink of water from one of the complimentary glasses nobody ever drinks from. "I was examing her crest when I discovered that it isn't actually the same kind of crest as ours. It doesn't function as an energy amplifier like ours did."

"You mean her crest is different too?" said Sora. "What crest is it?"

"It's not a crest of anything. Neither I nor my datafiles could find a match for the symbol on it. It seems to be just a meaningless symbol, though I'm sure it has a meaning of some kind. Otherwise it wouldn't be there."

"Weird..." muttered Tai.

"It gets weirder. The energy inside it was different from the energy our crests have. It's negatively charged."

"What?" Davis said. "Does that mean it's evil?"

"Not exactly. The energy inside her crest attracts our energy like a magnet. It feeds off and stores the power of our crests. So in essence, the power of our crests is being absorbed by hers."

"What!"

"You've gotta be kidding!"

"We've gotta stop this!" Tai said. "We've gotta destroy her crest!"

"Tai, are you crazy?!" said Matt. "We can't destroy her crest! She's a digidestined like us."

"But she's stealing our crests!" he retorted. "She must be working for some evil force or something! This crest of hers could be the reason our digimon are so weak!"

"Tai, calm down!" commanded Sora. Tai looked her eye-to-eye in protest, but immediately looked away. Sora could see redness in his cheeks- something she hadn't seen in years.

"Things might not be as they seem Tai," warned Izzy.

"Izzy's right," said Kari. "This is probably just one of Gennai's plans. He made our tags and crests, so he probably made this one too and is continuing the line of Digidestined."

"You don't actually believe that," said Tai in mild amazement.

"Not everything has to be a world-stomping threat Tai," said Matt. "You've been in politics too long."

"Are you sure about that?" Davis said. "I'm gonna have to go with Tai on this one. Don't you think Gennai would have told us about this if it was one of his plans?"

"He can be very secretive when he wants to be," Matt commented. "Plus he's never around when you need him."

Sora smiled. "Now you know that's not always true."

Matt smiled as well. "It seems that way sometimes." Tai looked like he was about to hang himself with Davis' noodles.

"There's only one way to find out," said Izzy. "Tomorrow, we've gotta go into the Digital World and find him. Whether it's his idea or not, he's got some explaining to do about our crests and this new girl's."

None of them could disagree with that idea.

****

The drive home was much too unhappy for Naki's taste. During the entire trip, her mother seemed tense. It wasn't too difficult to guess that Black Agumon made her uncomfortable. Naki couldn't figure out why her mother disliked him so much, but apparently Black Agumon returned the sentiment. Naki wondered if it was because he was a virus type digimon, but that wasn't likely. Betamon was a virus type, and mother didn't have any trouble with him. Then again, Betamon wasn't a very outspoken digimon- almost the exact opposite of Tohru, who spent the whole car ride asking about what happened as if his life depended on it.

"So this Agumon saved you from your accident," he said, heavily accenting the word "accident". Naki wondered if he somehow knew what really happened, or if he was just being a pain like usual. The latter was the most likely.

"Yes, he did," Naki said proudly, hugging Black Agumon protectively. The digimon was obviously less than pleased at being held like a ragdoll, but he didn't try to escape.

"Looks kinda wimpy to me," Tohru commented. "I bet he wouldn't last ten seconds in a battle with Betamon."

Black Agumon was about to say something back, but Naki cut in. "We're not going to fight Tohru! I don't want him getting hurt, and I don't want Betamon getting hurt either!"

"Hah! You're just chicken!" he said back. "Na-ki is a chi-cken, Na-ki is a chi-cken."

"I am not!"

"Are too!"

"Are not!"

"Are too!"

"Are-"

"Both of you be quiet!" their mother said.

"But-" Naki protested.

"I don't want to hear it! Just be quiet."

The rest of the ride was in silence. Tohru was obviously happy at the result of his taunting, which made Naki even angrier. She knew he didn't care about getting yelled at, and he knew that she really didn't like it. It was a common thing between them, but Naki had yet to handle the situation correctly.

Once they arrived home, they piled out of the vehicle in the garage and went up the stairwell of their apartment building. Tohru continuously gave his sister nasty stares, while Black Agumon did the same to the boy's back. After four flights of stairs they reached their home- number 504. Mrs. Yasushi tested the door, and found it opened already.

"Your father must be home already," the mother said in surprise. She walked inside followed by her children and their digimon, and indeed they found him sitting on the couch inside. On the chairs next to him were Tokomon and Nyaromon, looking very relieved when they saw who was at the door.

"Nyaromon, you're okay!" said Mrs. Yasushi as the little digimon leaped into her arms. She hugged the feline happily and tightly. "I was so worried!"

"You worry too much," Nyaromon replied, smiling at the woman who had been her partner for over two decades. "Was there any doubt that we'd be fine?"

The woman smiled, on the verge of tears. "You know me. Always a worry-wart."

_Just like me,_ thought Naki. _I guess she was right about me and mom being more similar than I thought._

After their little reunion, Nyaromon looked down at Naki with an angry expression that was very much like her mother's. Naki knew that Nyaromon could be worse than her mother on occasion- mother didn't have claws.

"Naki! You had us worried to death!" the white-furred digimon cried. "We looked all over for you, and found nothing!"

"You worry too much," said Naki with a smile.

"I do not!" she said defensively. "I'm just-"

"-very cautious," finished Mrs. Yasushi. Nyaromon looked at her with playful anger.

"Exactly. We were supposed to watch you, and you go running off!"

Tokomon hopped onto the head of the couch to join into the conversation. "Next time if you want to go somewhere, tell us."

"But you guys were sleeping so peacefully," Naki replied.

This got her father's attention. "Sleeping?" He looked at Tokomon. "You were sleeping when you were supposed to be watching my daughter?"

Tokomon sweat-dropped. "Well uh...that is..."

Nyaromon was also trying to come up with an answer. "We were just resting our eyes. If it wasn't for Elecmon's good food we wouldn't have fallen asleep!"

As the parents and their digimon continued their little argument, Tohru watched from the hallway quietly. Again, in all the excitement, he felt that he was somehow robbed. Last year, when he had placed high in the tournament he got special treatment that night from his parents. This year he got first, and nobody has done anything but dwell on what happened to Naki!

The boy smiled to himself. He had a plan. Naki would learn what happens when you steal the spotlight from those who deserve it. Tohru looked at the bored Black Agumon and laughed inwardly. He would get his payback.


	7. Dark Crest

When Naki awoke the next morning, she felt like leaping out her window and flying through the clouds. She had never had this much energy! Usually she was a calm, relaxed child who preferred to keep her nose in the books rather than play sports of any kind. Today, however, she felt like she could take on the world!

She looked at the clock beside her bed. "Six o'clock?! Wow, I never thought I'd feel this energetic at six in the morning," she said in amazement. She wondered if perhaps her clock was wrong, but looking outside dispelled that theory. The sun was nowhere to be seen, and only a few cars were on the street.

"Well I won't be falling asleep, I know that." Naki noticed that Agumon was also nowhere to be seen. _He must have woken up early too,_ she thought. The girl jumped out of bed, put on some comfortable clothes and her glasses, and headed into the kitchen to make some early breakfast. She halted halfway out the door.

"Almost forgot something," she said. Naki went over to her dresser and opened her sock drawer. In the back of it, beneath her carefully organized and bundled up socks, she found her digivice and crest. _Her_ digivice. Not anyone else's, but hers! Smiling, she put the crest around her neck and put the digivice in her pocket. "There." Now that she was ready, she left her bedroom and closed the door gingerly behind her so as not to wake anyone else up.

Naki entered the kitchen area, and as she passed she saw Agumon in the living room. He had the television on the CNN international channel. At that moment the newscasters were talking about the recent debates concerning digimon replacing humans in the military. They were replaying an important discussion from earlier this morning between two powerful figures- American general Jay Haus and the Digiworld ambassador, Tai Kamiya. Naki remembered meeting him last night, and only now did she realize just how important that man was politically.

"I didn't know he was the ambassador..." the bewildered Naki said as she joined Agumon on the couch.

"I take it you don't watch the news often."

She shook her head. "I prefer books to television. Not the online books, but the old paper and hardbound types."

"I can understand that."

Naki looked at him curiously. "Really? Most people think it's weird."

"Well, I'm a little strange myself," he said seriously. "There's nothing about you that I consider 'weird'."

She reached over and hugged Agumon lovingly. "Thanks. You're so nice." He trembled when she called him 'nice'. He managed to get out of her grip as he hopped off the couch.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing," Agumon replied. "I just feel anxious to get started."

"Get started? With what?"

He looked at her solemnly. "Your training. If you're to become a real Digidestined, you have to know what you're capable of. I can't fight at my true potential until you achieve your full potential."

Naki looked sad. "But...I don't want to fight."

"You're going to have to," Agumon insisted. "The world is just about ready to pop, and that'll be when you and I will strike."

"Ready to pop?" Agumon turned up the volume of the debate slightly to make it plenty clear to Naki. On screen, General Haus was speaking forcefully about an important subject.

(Haus): _"You know as well as I do that the threat of attack from a Mega is imminent. There is a strong chance that the middle eastern terrorist groups have access to a powerful digimon that no human technology can match! If we were to send squadrons of human soldiers against it, they wouldn't have a chance!"_

(Kamiya):_ "So instead you want to send an army of Digimon against it? Even if those rumors were true, they wouldn't have a better chance than us against a Mega-level digimon!"_

(Haus): "_The digimon are immortal! There would be no loss of life if they were to face it!"_

(Kamiya): _"_'_No loss of life'?! Are you nuts?!"_

The argument continued on like this, until Agumon eventually shut off the screen. Naki was speechless.

"You see what I mean? That monster is real. I can feel it deep inside, and so can you if you listen. As a digidestined, it is your responsibility to handle this situation...whatever the cost."

Naki slowly pulled out her digivice, and stared at it wordlessly. It almost seemed to sparkle in her hand, like it had a mind of its own. A part of her was dying to see what she could do, but her feelings were still strong. She hated fighting, especially between digimon. There was no point to it...usually. She knew that protecting people you care about was important. If she had to fight to protect those she loved, whether they are human or digimon, she knew she would.

"Okay," she whispered finally. "What do you want me to do?"

Agumon smirked, and lead Naki to the computer desk in her father's study. Naki stood in the center of the room uncertainly, while the digimon looked at her expectantly.

"You know what to do, right?" he asked, nodding towards the computer terminal.

Naki smiled. "You bet." She reached over, touched a button to make the holographic computer monitor appear, and held her digivice towards the screen.

"Digi-port, open!" she said forcefully. And, for the first time in her entire life, the program obeyed her command. A bright light surrounded the two, and they sped through the portal into the Digital World. Unbeknownst to them, someone else up early (for a bathroom break) witnessed this. Although he was still drowsy, he realized that this was the perfect opportunity.

_Now's my chance..._

****

Tai entered his hotel room, slamming the door on the way in. Part of it was because he was dead tired, and partly from the earlier debate. Man, he hated that General! He didn't even think digimon were sentient creatures! How could he not think that if they walked, talked, did math, and danced? Well, some of them danced...

The ambassador looked sadly at his companion that lay near motionless on the bed. He had been in a deep sleep for over a day, and he seemed to have no intention of waking up soon. His breathing was getting slower and weaker as time went on, which made Tai extremely worried. The general was correct when he said that digimon normally didn't die, but was that always the case? Tai still insisted that that girl with the strange crest was causing the weakness of the digimon. If it were true, then would the digimon come back even if their energy was sucked dry?

Tai sat next to him, and put a hand in his friend's claw. It was so cold and limp, like a corpse. If it weren't for the rhythmic rise and fall of Agumon's chest, Tai might have thought him dead. Of course, he would have been gone then...

"Agumon, if you can hear me, I want you to know that I won't give up." Tai felt tears in his eyes. Even though he was 39 years old, he still could be really emotional about certain things. Sora was one of those things; Agumon was another. "Even if I have to go against Gennai and the Digidestined, I won't give up. I don't want to lose you...because I know you would do the same for me." Tai didn't know if it was just his imagination, but he thought he felt Agumon's claw slightly close around his hand.

Tai took some time to regain his composure before he went to the vid-phone. He dialed up Izzy's home number. Thankfully the days of guessing when Izzy was online or not were gone thanks to the Multi-band connections used nowadays. Izzy answered immediately, though he seemed preoccupied with something else at the moment.

_"Hey Tai, what's up?"_ he said as he punched away at some computer keys. No doubt the phone link was on the same screen as whatever he was working on. "I saw you on CNN this morning. For a second I thought I was watching one of those goofy talk shows."

"Ha ha ha," Tai mocked. "You're a riot Izzy. That's what I get for not dissing your documentaries on Discovery."

_"I'm just glad my kids aren't ever awake that early."_

"So when are we heading to the Digital World? The sooner, the better."

_"I agree. I suppose we could go ourselves, but I think if we wait for the others-"_

"Let's go now," interrupted Tai. "We don't need an army to find Gennai."

_"But what should we tell the others?"_

"I don't care! Let's just hurry up and do something!"

_"Tai, calm yourself,"_ Izzy demanded. _"I know you're worried about Agumon. We're all worried about our digimon, but you can't just go running off on your own. If we're going to do this, we have to work together." _Tai clenched his fists and groaned. He hated waiting, but Izzy was right.

"Fine. Let's call the others and wake 'em up!"

Izzy just sighed. _Typical._

****

Black Agumon took a deep breath and stretched his neck around slightly. "Alright, let's begin."

"Agumon, are you sure we need to do this?" Naki asked. "I mean...why must we save the world by fighting? Isn't fighting wrong?"

The digimon sighed. "Naki, if you were to say that to a criminal, would they listen to you?"

"...No," she said sadly.

"Neither would an enemy. You must learn how to fight if you want to be a true Digidestined."

Naki's resolve strengthened, and she clutched her crest with renewed strength. "Alright. I'll do my best then...but I still don't like it."

"Of course you don't!" shouted a new arrival. Both Agumon and Naki looked to see Tohru waltzing up to them like he was the baddest kid in Odaiba. Betamon of course was with him, though the look on his face showed that he wasn't here for fun.

"What're you doing here?" Naki asked sourly. "Shouldn't you be asleep still?"

"What about you?!" he retorted. "Just because you're older than me doesn't mean you can leave the house whenever you want. Or do you think that Mom and Dad would be more lenient on you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Naki wasn't sure how her brother knew she had come here, but it was obvious that he wasn't in a good mood. Black Agumon seemed annoyed by his intrusion even more so than she was.

Tohru's face became filled with hate. "When something bad happens to you, Mom and Dad get all lovey-dovey about it and don't punish you at all! But when I do something, good or bad, they don't say anything! They ignore me because of you!"

"They do not!" said Naki, but Tohru wasn't finished.

"Now that you have a digimon, you'll probably take even more attention away from me. They'll probably be cheering for you now in the Battles!" Naki looked at him like he was nuts- even more so than usual. He really was angry with her; he wasn't playing around.

"Tohru, I'm not doing anything! You know I hate the Battles, so why would I join them? I don't care about that!"

Tohru grabbed his digivice. "You're lying! I know that you're jealous of me for being better than you at sports and for having more friends! You and this loser digimon are just training so that you can beat me and Betamon and get revenge!"

Now Naki was angry. "Don't call Agumon names!"

Her brother smiled wickedly. He had struck a nerve, and like any little brother he was going to use that for all it was worth. "I bet your little digimon is just as weak and slow as you are!" Naki's anger continued to rise. Unbeknownst to her, the trinket dangling from her neck was starting to glow.

"Tohru, stop it!!" she shouted.

Betamon was also worried. He was Tohru's partner, but Naki was a good friend (more like family). He didn't want to hurt her like this. He hopped close to Tohru and whispered meekly. "Tohru, please stop."

"Why?! It's her fault! She started it!" he insisted. "She's trying to make Mom and Dad love her more!"

"Tohru!" she cried.

"She's trying to forget that she's a freak!!"

Finally, it was just too much. Naki's eyes burst into tears, and she wailed loudly. Her crest erupted with light as power shot through it, which jumped to and enveloped Black Agumon.

_Agumon, digivolve to...Greymon!_

Tohru's instincts as a Digimon Battler kicked in. "Betamon, let's go!" he ordered, holding out his digivice. Betamon, although reluctant, let his much meaner, digivolved form come.

_Betamon, digivolve to...Seadramon!_

"Come on!" Seadramon shouted in open challenge. "I'll show you why Tohru and I are the champions of the arena!" Greymon didn't say anything, he just charged forward and wrestled with the serpentine digimon.

"Hah! I told you!" Tohru shouted at his sister, who was still crying despite the anger enveloping her body. "You've been waiting for a fight, haven't you?!"

"Shut up!!" she yelled. "I hate you!!"

"Well, I hate you even more!!" he shouted back. Seadramon slammed the side of Greymon with a powerful whip of his tail. The black-skinned Greymon fell over with a grunt of pain. Before he could recover, Seadramon unleashed a powerful attack on the helpless digimon.

"ICE BLAST!" he shouted. Seadramon's attack hit its mark easily, heavily damaging the digimon. Although Greymon was stronger physically, Seadramon had been fighting for a long time and knew the best places to hit an enemy. It was one of the things that brought him and Tohru to the top of their class.

"Greymon!" Naki shouted in anguish. Every hit on him felt like a hit on her. Normally it would be painful to watch such a fight for a girl normally as pacifistic as her. She couldn't explain it, but instead of feeling horrified by it...she was enjoying it.

"Get up!" she ordered. "Get up and fight, Greymon!"

The dark digimon managed to get to his feet, but he was still wobbly. Although he looked like he could collapse again at any moment, Greymon was ready to continue the fight. Tohru scoffed his opponent.

"Hah! What'd I tell you?! He can't even take a hit! He fights like a _girl_!" he taunted, going for a classic insult that rarely worked anymore. For Naki, it worked better than he expected.

"Stop it!!" she shouted again. She was boiling over with anger, and her face reflected this. Her normally calm features were replaced by a scowl of hate that could make a grown man halt in his tracks. Tohru laughed, totally enjoying this fight like any other. Now his parents would know that he was the best child!

Seadramon overtook Greymon again, proving his fine combination of strength and speed. The serpent encircled the digimon's throat and squeezed as hard as he could. Even against a creature as big and strong as a Greymon, a chokehold was potentially lethal and difficult to break from.

"Give up sis'!" Tohru ordered. "I'll tell him to stop if you admit that I'm better than you!" Even in her froth, Naki could see the pain Greymon was in. Using all of the will she had, she managed to calm herself to the point where she could speak intelligently. The glow of her crest faded to nil, but again she didn't care enough to notice.

"...Fine, you little brat," she said. Naki took a deep breath and said in a low voice, "You're better."

Tohru teasingly put a hand to his ear. "Huh? I couldn't hear you."

Naki clenched her fists, but simply repeated her last statement, this time louder. "You're better!"

"Than who?" he asked with a smile. Greymon didn't have much time left, as was apparent by the steady fall of his arms to the ground.

"You're better than me!" Naki shouted. "You're better than me!"

Tohru smiled. "Now say you're a freak! A freak with a weak digimon!"

"But you said-"

"I didn't say anything!" he lied blatantly. "You should know that a Battler doesn't keep their promises to those who aren't worthy!" By now he was just being melodramatic- probably picking out lines from animes he liked. Naki didn't care if he was playing around or not. She was done letting him have his way.

"Let him go, or I'm going to kick your ASS myself!" she yelled. Her crest glowed brightly again, but still didn't quite make it over the imaginary line.

Tohru had never heard his sister cuss before. He felt proud of himself for pushing her so far. Like any foolish child, he was ready to test just how far he could push her. "Seadramon, finish Greymon off!"

_Naki...help me!_

_You and I aren't like everybody else..._

"Right!" The creature released the barely conscious Greymon and reared its head back for a massive Ice Blast. "ICE..."

_I can't fight at my true potential until you achieve your full potential..._

_You must learn how to fight!!_

Naki shut her eyes and let her feelings of anger and hate fly to the surface, unbridled. "GREYMON, DESTROY HIM!!" The crest around her neck exploded with power, and her digivice whistled to life as the next stage of digivolution commenced.

Seadramon gasped in horror when he saw the face of pure evil staring at him with a sadistic smile.


	8. Metamorphosis

The Digidestined (without their digimon partners) gathered on the Island of Server, at a predecided meeting point. It was a little while before everybody arrived. By then, Tai was edgier than ever.

"What took you guys so long?! How long does it take to shower and get dressed?!"

"Some of us have kids to take care of Tai!" barked Yolei, who was obviously not fully awake. Ken sighed, as if he had seen this coming.

"Don't you think I know that?" Tai retorted. "I have kids too, you know!"

"Just drop it, you two!" said Kari. "We didn't come here to fight! You're acting like a couple of my students."

"Yeah, don't make her send you to the principal's office!" said Davis jokingly.

Cody put a hand over his eyes to shield the morning sun, and searched the horizon. "Gennai's house should be just north of this spot."

"Then let's go!" ordered Tai, sprinting down the path already. The others followed at a more sedate pace.

"How long do you think he can keep that up?" Mimi asked.

"He's still pretty healthy," said Joe. "He could probably keep that up for a good...twenty minutes."

"Ahh, the joys of aging," Sora muttered. "If it's not one thing, it's another."

"Well, age hasn't changed you a bit," Matt said smiling.

"You're still a flirt, aren't you," she responded, kissing him on the cheek as they walked hand in hand.

"Oi vey," muttered TK.

After a while they caught up with Tai, who had been 'resting' on a boulder on the side of the path. When he joined them in walking, he seemed to do it with a slight limp. Upon questioning, he said it was an 'old soccer injury'. Also, he said, he didn't want to leave the others in the dust. Of course, nobody believed him.

"Hey, look up there," said Izzy as they reached the end of the path. Up the hill before them, they saw a fine piece of housing stylized to look like the old Japanese temples from feudal times. A sign next to them said, 'Gennai's House' in big, bold letters.

"I guess he's not worried about troublemakers," said Sora.

"He keeps getting better and better housing," added Joe. "You'd think he was a millionaire or something."

"Well, he's been around forever," Kari joined in. "Maybe he just has really old stocks and bonds."

"Enough kidding around," Tai said. "Let's go talk to him."

"Yes, your highness," said Mimi sarcastically as Tai half-jogged (full-jogging was impossible with his 'old soccer injury') up the hill. "Man, he's as bossy as he was when we were kids."

"You should talk," said Sora teasingly. "You were just as bad."

"I was not!" she asserted. "I just spoke my mind. I _am_ the bearer of the crest of Sincerity, after all."

"You say it, sistah'!" added Yolei. The two high-fived each other, and the others just groaned.

Tai banged on the large, metallic front door. "Gennai, open up! It's me Tai!" When Tai got no answer, he continued on like this as the others caught up to him.

"By the way, how old is Gennai?" Mimi asked. "Is he still around?"

"Sure he is," Izzy answered. "He was made young again when all those disasters struck the Digital World, so he's probably just starting to get gray hairs again."

Yolei snapped her fingers. "Darn, I was hoping he would still look like a stud." 

Ken gave her an odd glance, as did the others.

"Oh, I mean, not as cute as you of course, honey," she added.

"Sure," he said sourly.

"She's just kidding Ken," Cody said. "Sometimes she forgets herself."

Yolei kissed her husband lovingly on the lips. "You know I only have eyes for you, 'my Emperor'."

"'My Emperor'?" Sora said. Ken blushed and looked at the ground shyly, while the others laughed...except for Tai, who had just now stopped beating futily on Gennai's door.

"He must not be home," noted Izzy. "I wonder where he could be?"

"Can't he leave a message before he leaves?!" Tai said angrily.

Joe noticed something on the ground nearby. He picked up a waterlogged piece of paper. "You mean like this?"

Tai took it and read it aloud. "'Going away for the weekend. Will be back Monday. Gennai.' Why would he go on vacation? He doesn't do anything!" said Tai angrily.

"Relax Tai," said Izzy. He walked around the house, and the others followed him curiously. Izzy stopped in front of a large window that was cracked open, most likely to let air inside. "Give me a boost. Gennai won't mind, during an emergency."

"I hope so." Tai stuck a knee out, and the smaller man got on it and climbed to his shoulders. Izzy managed to push the window the rest of the way open and climbed in. There was a loud crash as the redhead clumsily entered the house. The others ran to the front door again.

"I can't believe we're breaking into Gennai's house," TK laughed.

"This isn't going into one of your books, is it?" Kari asked.

"It better not!" Tai said. The others just smiled.

The front door of Gennai's house was unlocked from the inside, and Izzy opened the door. "Come in, ladies and gentle-"

Tai dashed in. "Let's find Gennai's computer and see what he's got in it. Izzy, let's go!"

"...men," finished Izzy. The others came in, and both Tai and Izzy searched high and low for a computer. Unfortunately they weren't sure if he even _had_ one.

"Wow, this is a nice place," Davis said as they all looked in wonder at all the things inside. There were interesting statues, old paintings, and trinkets of all kinds. They found what appeared to be the living room and took their seats while Izzy and Tai combed the house.

"Come on, he's gotta have one," Tai said as he ran by. He backtracked when he noticed them all relaxing. "Why aren't you guys helping?! This house is bigger than it looks you know!"

"Yeah Davis, why aren't you helping?" Kari asked. "You too TK."

"Matt, they need your aeronautic abilities," said Sora innocently.

"Go help them, honey," added Yolei. The four men looked at each other, and sighed in unison. They got up and started working on the basement levels, while the girls chatted about various things and got caught up on the latest gossip. Joe and Cody simply grinned and calmly examined the fine pieces of art around the room.

****

It happened so quickly. A loud cry of anger... a surge of power... a painful scream. Seadramon didn't stand a chance against that skeleton of a digimon. Tohru could do nothing but watch in fear as a creature he couldn't believe was real rended and slashed at his digimon companion.

"Seadramon!" Tohru cried as the final deathblow from Naki's digimon slashed through his opponent. Seadramon burst into a cloud of pixels, and the digimon was no more. For a second, Tohru couldn't comprehend what just happened.

**_"That was fun."_**

"Wha...what are you?" Tohru asked in fear. "You're not my sister..."

Naki looked at him, revealing the dramatic change in her features. Her once soft brown eyes hidden behind a pair of thin glasses had been replaced with glowing red irises. Her lips were curled into a satisfied smile at seeing the expression on Tohru's face. She took several steps towards the boy, causing him to stumble backwards in fear. Her giant digimon followed her with a similar expression.

**_"Of course I am,"_** both seemed to say. The giant digimon and Naki's mouth both moved, but the voice was way too guttural and masculine to be hers. **_"Who else would I be?"_** the voice asked mockingly.

Tohru got to his feet, his sadness overpowered by a sense of urgency. Looking left and right, he dashed towards the TV he arrived in. Unfortunately, it was too far away to allow a clean getaway.

**_"Not so fast."_** The giant digimon leaped a good thirty feet over the boy and landed where the TV was, crushing it easily. Tohru stared in fear at the massive monster, and stumbled backwards. He bumped into his 'sister', who grabbed him by the throat in a surprisingly strong chokehold.

**_"Not so fun when you're the one feeling the pain, is it?"_** they said. Tohru tried to break from Naki's grip, but it was like trying to bend steel.

"Let..._*gasp*_...me..._*gasp*_...go!" he managed to say.

Naki smiled, as did her digimon companion. **_"You know what I want to hear."_**

Tohru saw red and yellow circles in front of him, and was starting to feel woozy. No amount of struggling seemed to be working, so he simply relented for survival's sake. "You're..._*gasp*_...better than..._*gasp*_...me."

**_"I didn't quite get that,"_** they said. Naki's grip tightened, making Tohru cry out in pain with what little air he had in his lungs.

"You're better- _*cough, weeze*_-_hack_, than me!"

Seemingly satisfied, Naki threw the boy to the ground. Tohru took in the precious air that had been denied him, while Naki and her digimon stared icily.

**_"Now, say that you are a freak, and that your digimon is weak. Or have I already proved that beyond a doubt?"_** The two laughed simultaneously, while Tohru lay there weakly and praying for dear life.

"Betamon..." he whispered softly. "You were right...I'm so sorry..."

**_"It's no use apologizing now. You should have listened to him. Perhaps then you wouldn't have gotten him killed."_**

Tohru managed to get to his feet, open anger on his face. "I don't know what you did to my sister, but I know she would never kill a digimon on purpose! What kind of monster are you?!"

**_"Next time, be careful who you pick on. Sometimes they'll do something...unexpected."_** Naki jumped onto the massive digimon's shoulder. **_"I will spare your life, so that you can always remember this day and feel ashamed of your failure. Thanks to you, the world is now mine."_**

As that realization sunk in, the Ultimate level digimon stomped off to use another TV. Tohru fell to his knees, and openly cried as he realized that Betamon would never forgive him.

****

"Hey guys, I found it!" said Davis as he ran back up to the main floor. The others met up with him.

"Good, lead us to it," Tai ordered. Davis led them down the basement steps and down a few halls, until finally they came upon a nicely furnished, but small study. In the center of the room was a desk with an 'old-fashioned' Pentium 4 processor, monitor, mouse and keyboard.

Izzy sat at the desk and cracked his knuckles in anticipation. "Ahh, this brings back memories." The computer genius began to type at an incredible pace, each keystroke making a nostalgic _*click*_ each time they were punched.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Matt asked. "Don't you think Gennai would keep the important stuff separate from the computer?"

"I realize that, but in the Digital World that's not really possible," Izzy said. "Data is accessible from just about anywhere. All you need is the right code."

"So what're you looking for?" Cody asked.

"Look for anything that might have to do with the Crests," Tai said. "Ours and the girl's."

Izzy typed the programming code at an incredible speed, showing off his amazing computer skills. Of course, they all knew that computers were his life, so his skill came as no surprise. After about thirty seconds, Izzy proudly said, "Got it."

Images and data concerning each of the nine crests (the eight original, plus the crest of Kindness) were displayed in sequence. The information provided descriptions of each crest's power level, their aspect, and their owner. Amongst this information were several records that detailed when and where they were used, and what they were used for. Needless to say, the records were really long.

"There's plenty of stuff about our crests, but what about Naki's?" Kari asked. As a teacher, she was good at remembering names.

"I'm looking..." Izzy scanned down the list quickly, skipping over the battles with the Dark Masters, and the events with Apocalypmon. Finally, he came to the last few records- the ones detailing when the original Digidestined gave up the power of their crests to create a barrier of good over the Digital World. After that, Ken's crest was the only one.

"There's nothing here about Naki's crest," Izzy said finally. "Either Gennai doesn't no about it, or it's in a different file."

"Wait, what's that," said Yolei. She pointed at the very last record, which didn't have anyone's name on it. It was just a general record concerning all the crests. It said 'Power returned via reverse process'.

"What's that mean?" asked Sora.

Izzy leaned back in his cushioned chair. "Well, if our crests lost their power when we created that barrier over the Digital World, then the reverse would mean the Digital World giving power to us."

"So you're saying that our crests are back because the entire Digital World recharged them?" Joe asked. "That's crazy!"

"As crazy as it sounds, it's a better answer than I can come up with."

Ken put a hand to his chin. "But how could Gennai do that? He doesn't have that kind of power."

"No, but Oikawa does," said Tai.

"Oikawa?!"

"Sure. Who else would have the power of the Digital World at their fingertips? Azulongmon and the other spirits don't, but Oikawa is different. He may not be able to put up much of a fight like Azulongmon, but if he's protecting the Digital World then he probably can manipulate the barrier our crests made."

"I suppose that's a viable solution," Izzy mused.

"But why would he do that?" Cody asked. "Doesn't that mean the barrier of good is gone?"

"It wasn't doing us much good anyway," said TK. "We had all kinds of trouble in the Digital World even after we made it."

"Oikawa can protect the Digital World without the barrier," said Izzy. "That mini-dimension of wishing took care of that."

"So the real question is, why did he do that if Naki's crest was going to drain ours anyway? Why not just give her a crest like ours?"

Izzy looked at the screen curiously, and a thought came to him. "...He must not have known about it. That crest must have come from somewhere else."

"But where could it have come from?" Kari questioned.

"When I first showed the crest to Black Agumon, he didn't recognize it."

"He may have been lying," suggested Cody.

"I know, but he seemed genuinely surprised about the crest," Izzy replied. "I think he was telling the truth about that, if nothing else."

"So...that would mean the crest would have to come from the Dark World then," Ken said softly.

"Can the powers of darkness really create a Crest?" asked Kari. "If they could...then why haven't we seen one until now?"

"It was an accident," said Izzy. The others looked at him, confusion evident in their faces. "It has to be. If Naki has a new digivice, then that means something about her has caused the model to evolve. The same thing happened with Ken."

Ken nodded in agreement. "Right... when I entered the Dark Ocean for the first time, that was when Sam's digivice changed and became mine."

"So then maybe this girl somehow did that as well. The Dark Ocean could have caused not only her digivice to change, but allowed her to create a Crest."

"That can't be good," groaned Matt. 

"Her digivice was with her Agumon in the Dark World," Izzy continued. "He must have caused the transformation. The Crest must have been a by-product."

"Do you think she could have been affected by it too?" suggested Joe. "We all know how Ken was affected."

"So we could have an evil girl with a Crest from the Dark Ocean running around?" Davis said. 

It was Tai's turn to be inspired. "What if...yeah, that's gotta be it."

"Huh?"

Tai turned to Ken. "Your digivice! It could block our digimons' ability to digivolve, remember?! You used the control spires to make the range bigger, right?!"

Ken didn't like to be reminded of that, but he nodded. "Right."

"So what if this girl's digivice has the power to drain energy?! _She_ could be killing our digimon with help from the powers of darkness! None of this started until her digivice and digimon appeared."

"Tai, you don't know that for sure," Izzy said. "There might be another reason."

"What else could it be?!" he exclaimed.

"But if that were true, why just us?" Joe wondered. "Nobody else has been complaining about weak digimon at the hospitals."

"Maybe it's because we're the biggest threat to the powers of darkness," suggested TK. "We _are_ Digidestined, after all."

"That's it!" exclaimed Tai. "That's gotta be it!"

"Tai, I think I would have noticed something like that when I examined her digivice."

"Izzy, you've never seen a digivice like hers before! How would you know what to look for?! Come on guys, it's gotta be the answer! We've gotta go stop her! Please, you've gotta trust me!" Izzy still didn't seem willing to agree, and the others had similar expressions.

"Guys...don't any of you trust me?" he asked sadly.

Sora slowly put a hand on his shoulder. "I trust him." Tai looked at her and smiled...lovingly. Before he could stop himself, the damage had already been done. She must have noticed something in his expression, because she started to blush.

Matt made his decision. He looked up and nodded in agreement. "I do too." Tai grinned and nodded respectfully to his long-time friend and ally.

"Me too!" said Davis.

"Yeah!" agreed Yolei. The others voiced their sentiments, and before long it was down to just Izzy.

"Come on Izzy...trust me," said Tai. "I may not have all the answers like you do, but I have a feeling in my gut. That girl is killing our best friends. Don't you want to help us save them?"

After a period of thought, Izzy stood up and nodded. "Alright Tai. I'll go with you guys on this hunch of yours. But if you're wrong..."

"Don't worry, I'm not," Tai said seriously. "I knew from the start that something about this girl wasn't right."

"I think it's time we stop playing around and we take care of this!" rallied Davis.

"Let's hurry," said Ken. "If we're lucky, maybe we can save her from the powers of darkness...and save our digimon as well."


	9. Face of Darkness, Part 1

"Where are those kids?" said Mr. Yasushi angrily. "They better not have gone to the Digital World without permission."

"Honey, don't worry," said his wife, trying to be calm. "I'm sure there's a reason for this."

"Like what?"

"Well..." She couldn't think of one.

"Those kids are in trouble now," said Tokomon as he surfed through the television channels. Suddenly, all the channels were replaced with an Emergency Broadcast.

_"Attention! Attention! This is an emergency broadcast! This is not a test, repeat NOT a test!"_

"Hey guys, come look at this!" called out Nyaromon to the two humans. They went into the room and watched the screen as images from a live broadcast were displayed.

_"All citizens of Odaiba are to evacuate as soon as possible. A digimon has gone berserk in the downtown area and is causing destruction wherever it goes."_ The broadcast showed images of a giant, skeletal digimon with brilliant red eyes and a wicked temper.

"That's a Skullgreymon!" exclaimed Tokomon. "How did that thing get here?!"

_"Police report that the digimon seems to have a child held captive, though it is unclear as to how this occured. The child's presence is preventing them from using heavy artillery."_ The live camera zoomed in on a girl perched on the Skullgreymon's shoulder. Her face was completely calm, despite the carnage occuring around her.

"It's Naki!" cried Mrs. Yasushi. "Oh no, my baby!"

Nyaromon jumped to her feet and turned deadly serious. "We've gotta save her!"

"Are you crazy?" Tokomon said. "That's an Ultimate level digimon! We don't have that kind of power!"

"I don't care!" Nyaromon barked back. "Naki's in trouble, and we're responsible for taking care of her!"

"Guys..." Mr. Yasushi said somberly. "We don't want to get you killed."

In his mind, Tokomon made a decision. He got to his feet and turned to face his human companion. "Look, we're going with or without you! You know we care for Naki as much as you do, so we can't just run away and risk letting her die!" Nyaromon smiled. She liked it when Tokomon became all 'gun-ho'.

Mr. and Mrs. Yasushi looked at each other, and realized that they were right. They didn't want to run away either. They had to save their daughter. Mr. Yasushi nodded to his digimon friend. "Right! Let's go!"

They ran out the door in a flash, leaving the television on. The emergency broadcast continued to order the evacuation, and prayed. _"God have mercy on us all."_

****

When the news of the rampaging Skullgreymon reached them through a friendly digimon, Tai and the others weren't sure how they were going to pull this off. One thing was for certain- they would need their digimon if they were going to do it, and as long as they were weakened that was impossible. Izzy had ventured a guess as to how they could be awoken, but it was even more far-fetched than Tai's guess on the reason for their weakness.

"Izzy, are you crazy?" Tai said as the team met at the digiport. "If we do that, we'll be defenseless!"

"I know it's risky, but it's the only way to destroy the Crest. Once Naki's crest is gone, the original digimon should have enough energy to digivolve."

"But how will they digivolve if they're not even awake?" said Matt. "We have to get rid of that problem first if we're going to fight."

"Don't worry," said Izzy. "Using the analogy of Ken's dark digivice when he was the Digimon Emperor, it only worked when we were in proximity to it or a control spire."

"If that's true, then why are the digimon getting weaker even though they're at home?"

"Once they were weakened by Naki's digivice, their bodies couldn't maintain their natural equilibrium. Thus the standard digital decomposition could take place unabated."

"Speak our language, Izzy!" said Tai in exasparation. "We don't speak techno-babble!"

"What I'm saying is, Naki's digivice caused them to be so weak, that being outside the Digital World would affect them more easily. Plus, without any energy in our bodies due to Naki's crest, being with us wasn't helping them recharge. It's like when Yolei left Poromon with me all those years ago, and he grew progressively weaker while she was gone."

"You still remember that?" Yolei said in amazement. "Geez, Izzy..."

The redhead smiled. "Being a part of the team again has made me remember those days much more easily."

"You said it," agreed Tai, avoiding the urge to look at Sora's face. "I miss those days." The others silently agreed.

Izzy cleared his throat, waking everybody up. "So, getting back to the digimon, if we destroy Naki's crest, ours will recharge and we'll be able to wake up our digimon with our own energy. Then they should be able to digivolve just fine."

"So then what's the plan?" Davis asked.

Tai, although still unsure about Izzy's plan, explained it to the others.

****

Skullgreymon tramped through the town, throwing cars into buildings and unleashing terrible destruction on anything in his path. Although it seemed like random destruction to the innocent bystanders and the pitiful human police trying to protect them, it was actually all part of his plan.

**_"Where are you, Digidestined..."_** He and Naki said. **_"I'm waiting!"_**

The police force trying to set up a blockade around that part of town heard this. One of the younger officers asked "Digidestined? Who's that?"

"Don't you know anything?!" growled one of the veteran cops. "The Digidestined are those kids who saved us from that huge monster!"

Another young officer who was familiar with history looked at him quizzically. "But wasn't that over twenty years ago?" she asked. "They aren't still around, are they?"

"Of course they are!" the man barked. "The Digidestined will be around as long as evil threatens the Digital World! They'll be here soon...I know it." He returned his attention to the situation at hand, and ordered "Okay everyone! Let's save that girl and take care of this freak!" Rallied behind their leader, the police officers continued to set up the blockade while preparing to charge the creature en masse with the volunteer digimon of their precinct.

Skullgreymon prowled up to the blockade of cars, buses, and road blocks and smiled at the humans before him. The girl on his shoulder hopped to the ground and stood before the digimon. **_"You wouldn't shoot me, would you?"_** Skullgreymon put a large claw under Naki's chin gingerly, as if he were ready to slash her throat. Naki simply smiled as if she found it as amusing as he did. **_"Somebody might get hurt."_**

The veteran cop took a megaphone and turned it on. He stood up so that he was easily visible. _*krkk* "Don't do anything rash, mister. We can make a deal. Let the girl go."_

Skullgreymon chuckled deep in his imaginary throat. His evil laugh sent chills down everyone's spine. **_"What if I refuse?"_**

_"Then somebody might get hurt, and that somebody is you. We've got you surrounded."_

**_"Is that a fact?"_** he asked mockingly. **_"Well, take your best shot!"_**

Suddenly, a digimon came out of hiding and shot out her attack. "Poison Ivy!" The leafy limbs encircled Naki and jerked her out of the street before Skullgreymon knew what happened.

The veteran smiled. _"Fire!"_ On his command, every police-man and -woman shot everything they had, while the strategically placed digimon launched their strongest attacks. Some of the police officers had rocket launchers, which also were shot at the monster. The sound the explosions made was deafening, and the amount of dust it kicked up was amazing. After a good fifteen seconds of shooting, the veteran shouted _"Cease fire!"_.

The dust made it difficult to make out what was left of the digimon, but the silence was music to everyone's ears.

"All right!" shouted one officer. "We got him!" Everyone cheered in unison.

The Palmon police digimon noticed the girl's eyes were glowing bright red. In a voice just like the Skullgreymon, she said **_"Think again..."_**

A powerful Dark Shot launched from the dust, obliterating the blockade and causing dozens of officers to scatter. Shrapnel littered the streets and destroyed portions of the buildings lining the street. Several cops were injured, while some were much worse. The veteran, having been in the direct line of the blast, was one of those people.

Skullgreymon lumbered forth from the dust, looking down at the Palmon holding Naki. The Ultimate level digimon smiled evilly, as did the girl. The Palmon looked up in terror at the creature before her.

**_"Let's see how long those limbs of yours can really stretch..."_**

"STOP!"

Skullgreymon looked in the direction of the voice, and saw a group of men and women running up to him. They weren't just any men and women though.

**_"You..."_** Skullgreymon looked down at the Digidestined, his inner feelings boiling. This was the moment he had been waiting for during his years of imprisonment.

"Who do you think you are?!" shouted Tai. "Nobody messes up Odaia while we're around!"

Naki stretched her arms out, and the Palmon was surprised at the awesome strength she displayed. The digimon was forced to let go, and crashed through the wall of the building behind her. Naki's glowing red eyes shocked the others.

**_"You cannot stop me,"_** Skullgreymon said. **_"This girl has done her job."_**

_What..._ thought Izzy. _Her job..._

"Let her go!" ordered Davis. "We've got you beat!"

**_"Is that so..."_** Skullgreymon chuckled. While he laughed, the Digidestined took each other's hand and formed a line. 

"When I give the signal, give it all you've got!" Tai shouted.

"Right!" the others responded.

**_"Huh...?"_**

"On three!" Tai called out. "One!"

Everyone closed their eyes.

"Two!"

A soft warmth filled their hearts. They felt the minds of the other Digidestined touch their own. All their hearts beat as one. Skullgreymon could sense power building up within each of them.

**_"What trickery is this?"_**

"Three!!"

The instant he said that, every one of the twelve Digidestined put everything they had into activating their power as chosen children. The original team focused the power of their crests, while the second team focused on the strength of their digimentals (or the symbol of their digi-eggs, if you prefer), aided by their digivices like in their last battle.

Skullgreymon and Naki looked down at her crest as a huge surge of energy engulfed it. It was a light so bright that it blinded them both. The whistle of energy that came from it was painful. The Dark Crest began to buckle under the stress of trying to contain so much energy at the same time. It was a losing battle.

**_"What?! What's happening?!"_** His power reached maximum capacity, and he felt a surge of energy within him as well. However, the excess energy was much too great to contain. In one brilliant flash of silvery light, the crest exploded with brilliant intensity. Naki's eyes returned to a normal color as she was shaken out of her torpor.

At first, it was the like pushing against a one-ton boulder. Then, as the simultaneous power-up of the team's crests and digi-eggs overwhelmed the Dark Crest, the 'boulder' gave way like so much dust. The eyes of each Digidestined's digimon snapped open as power surged through them...a familiar power. A power they had not felt in twenty-five years. No matter where in the world they were, the digimon shot up into the sky as brilliant flashes of light and digivolved to their maximum levels in record time.

The Digidestined cheered loudly as their digimon finished their digivolutions. Not only that, but it was like a reunion of old friends when they saw all the Ultimate and Mega level digimon present. Unfortunately, something else was happening that they weren't prepared for.

"Wh...where am I?" Naki whimpered. "My head...it hurts..."

"Kid, get over here!" shouted Matt. "Get away from him!" Skullgreymon seemed to not be listening to them. He was focused on something internal.

Naki looked down at herself, and felt a strange burning sensation within her. The girl doubled over in pain, and started to cry out. "AhhhHHHH!!"

"What's happening to her?!" Mimi cried.

**_"She's realizing her full potential!"_** Skullgreymon said wickedly. **_"Finally, after twenty-five years of waiting, I'll be returned to my full power! My plan has succeeded, thanks to you buffoons called humans and my Naki!"_** Reaching out to where Naki lay, he clamped his bony hand over her, and she cried out in more pain. The entire body of Skullgreymon started to glow a deep red.

"What's he talking about?!" Tai shouted.

"It's worse than we thought!" Izzy clarified. "Naki's not a Digidestined! She's a trap!"

"A TRAP?!!"

Naki made one last plea for help, before she was seemingly absorbed into Skullgreymon like a mass of energy. Skullgreymon reared his massive head back and laughed a joyous, evil laugh that echoed through the sky to the digimon above.

**_Skullgreymon, Mega-digivolve to..._**

**"No, it can't be!"** shouted Wargreymon in disbelief. **"It's..."**

_...**DAEMON!! AHH-hahahaha!!**_

****

NEXT: The final chapter! All is explained, and the battle between the forces of good and evil rages in the streets of Odaiba for one last time!


	10. Face of Darkness, Part 2

NOTE: My brother told me to upload this while he was away

NOTE: My brother told me to upload this while he was away. He said not to change it in any way, but HAHA!! I'm going to anyway. Just kidding. A little note shouldn't hurt. Uhh…bye! --- Drew

****

The Digidestined stared fearfully at the monstrous visage before them. Seeing the red-cowled being brought back memories of the frightening night twenty-five years ago, when they had nearly witnessed the end of mankind. This being had been one instrument of the destruction that had nearly obliterated the heroes and their digimon. Thankfully, they had been able to trap him in what seemed an inescapable prison. Obviously, they were wrong.

**_"Ahh...now I feel like my old self,"_** Daemon said with a sadistic tone. No doubt he was smiling evilly underneath his red hood that shrouded his face in darkness. Looking down at the small, pitiful humans that stood against him, he added **_"Now...what were you saying about stopping me?"_**

Tai stood firm, though he knew that this could be the last fight he'd ever be in. He wasn't as spry as he was when he was a kid, and neither were the other Digidestined. Even the digimon were a bit rusty on their fighting skills, and were still feeling the after-effects of the energy drain Naki's seemingly false crest caused. Even though they had reached the highest levels they could (three Megas and several Ultimates), they still might not have the strength to win against this seemingly unstoppable foe.

"I can't believe this...Daemon was behind this the whole time," muttered Ken as he stared angrily at the virus digimon before them. "He dragged that poor girl into his schemes, just to get at us."

**_"So you think, Ichijouji,"_** the beast responded.

Ken gasped. "You remember me?"

**_"How could I forget? It was you who trapped me in that dark, empty universe."_** Daemon's fists clenched tightly beneath his red garments. **_"The Dark Ocean is no place for an ambitious conqueror to reside when there's so many humans to destroy, and so little time."_**

"What did you do with Naki?!" shouted Sora. "Let her go!"

Daemon chuckled. **_"I'm afraid I can't do that. Now that my spell has reached it's end, Naki doesn't exist."_**

"Your...spell?" she said, already fearful of what answer he might give.

**_"Yes...you didn't think I just picked a random girl to serve as my key to your world, do you? I have been weaving this plan ever since the day I was humiliated by that parlor trick of yours."_** By 'parlor trick', he was no doubt referring to Ken's use of his dark digivice to open a gate to the Dark Ocean. Even though it nearly cost him his nerve, and possibly his life, it was the only way they could think of to trap Daemon before he destroyed their digimon and their world. It took all six of the younger Digidestined, but they were able to trap the dark being.

Tai backed up slightly so that he and the others could talk quickly. "This isn't good you guys. We've gotta come up with a plan, quick."

"Keep him busy," said Izzy quickly. "I think if I can do a little creative typing, I can get everybody with a digivice to help us. We might be able to take out Daemon just like we did Malomyotismon."

"How long will it take for you to get the message out, especially when most of the world speaks languages other than Japanese?"

Izzy thought for a moment. "I think I can link up the necessary programs in my computer into the D-terminals and digivices within fifteen minutes."

"Fifteen minutes?!" Tai exclaimed. "By then, the battle will be over already! Can't you do it faster?!"

"I'll try, but you have to keep him busy," Izzy insisted. "If he catches wind of it, it may not work."

Tai nodded. "We'll do our best."

"Good luck Izzy," said Mimi. The redhead nodded and snuck away to the nearest vidphone terminal, while Tai and the others stood firm before their adversary.

**_"Are you done with your little chit-chat?"_** Daemon asked cockily. **_"Or are you ready to die?"_**

Metalgarurumon growled angrily. **"You're the one whose going down!"** As he prepared to charge, Matt called up to him, ordering him to halt. The Mega-digimon looked at him angrily, but saw the look in Matt's eyes- they had a plan. The digimon halted in mid-flight and backed off slowly.

Tiny beads of sweat fell down the side of Tai's face. He didn't let any doubt show on his face, because to doubt would be to give up. "Before we take care of you, I want to know what you did with Naki!"

Daemon seemed amused by his show of bravery. **_"Well, if you insist on knowing, I'll tell you. It won't save you or your digimon from my wrath."_**

"We're not worried about that!" shouted TK. "Naki is one of our priorites- she's an innocent that doesn't deserve to be used by monsters like you!"

Daemon chuckled. **_"Really...even if she _is_ a monster just like me?"_** The surprise on their faces was music to Daemon's ears. He enjoyed the look of confusion on their faces, because it showed just how small-minded they really were in his eyes. **_"A simple mind like yours couldn't understand the nature of the connection between Naki and myself."_**

"Try us," said Tai evenly. "We're not as dumb as you think we are."

The giant red digimon bowed mockingly. **_"Very well then. If you insist on hearing about this before I destroy you, then so be it."_** Daemon floated easily into the air, and hovered effortlessly above them all, coming a little closer- close enough to make them tremble. **_"Naki isn't just any ordinary girl. She's not a pitiful human like you."_**

"What makes her so special?" Cody asked, his interrogative tone making the question sound like a command.

**_"The girl was born to a human mother, and a human father. However, the actually seed that she was to be carried a small piece of my essence inside it. A piece so small that even I wouldn't be able to detect it if I hadn't known about it."_**

"How could you have gotten to her? When she was born you were still in the Dark world," reminded Kari.

**_"Very true. My seed wasn't directly placed inside of her, mind you. The seed itself was placed in the one who bore her- young Rini."_**

"Her mother..." 

**_"The same. During our battle, she was watching from the sidelines in the building she lived in. She thought she could get away with catching a quick peak at the fabulous 'monsters' she had heard about when she was a child. Unfortunately for her, she didn't sneak past my notice."_**

Daemon held up his hand, which started to glow with black and red bolts of lighting that danced along the palm of his hand. **_"Using my power, I was able to sneak a small piece of my viral data into the girl during the breaks in our battle. I was hoping to use her as a failsafe in case you proved tougher than I expected. Had you not been protected by your digivices, I would have done the same to you."_**

"Looks like you were right at least once," Matt said icily.

"So you polluted this poor girl with your evil just so that you could survive?" Yolei asked. "You're horrible!"

**_"I'm just a careful planner,"_** he corrected. **_"In any case, when I was sent to the Dark Ocean by that 'dark digivice' of yours, I simply bided my time and waited."_**

"Waited for what?"

**_"For the seed to grow. It couldn't affect her, much to my dismay, since that pitiful Owikawa managed to make everyone in the world have a digivice, my seed wasn't able to develop in that girl. Fortunately, her child wasn't as safe."_**

Joe pieced it together in his mind, and said it aloud to himself. "So it was your darkness that prevented Naki from having a digivice and a digimon of her own."

Daemon chuckled. **_"Indeed. Without them, the only outlet for her inner energy was my seed. It grew within her, slowly gaining strength until one day it called out to me. Her very essence had become strong enough to become one with me again, at least in spirit. However, that was enough to carry my thoughts to her."_**

"And that's when she came to free you," TK said. "She used your powers to free you, not the power of a crest. Between the two of you, you managed to break free."

**_"I'm glad to see you simple creatures understand,"_** Daemon replied. **_"You are correct. Although the task of breaking the barrier cost me my true mega-level form, I was able to break free and re-enter the Digital World. Then, it was child's play to prepare Naki and myself for the final stage of her development."_**

Mimi looked horrified at what he was implying. "You...took her back into you to make you whole again."

Daemon nodded. **_"As you can see, Naki is not someone you wish to save. She is a monster like me. So, if I were you, I'd give up this hopeless defiance and I might spare you from the true suffering I intend to give anyone who stands in my way."_**

Tai seemed about to go over the edge, but he was suppressing his anger with admirable skill. "So... you denied an innocent girl the chance to have a digimon and a normal life... and now you've eaten her like she was a lunch meal?" Tai's teeth became partially exposed as his anger built. "We're not going to let you get away with ANY of this!!" Tai shouted. "Wargreymon, ATTACK!!"

Without saying another word, the Mega-digimon shot forward at lightning speed, and the other digimon joined him as they made a charge for the powerful foe before them. Daemon just smiled and beckoned them forward as his evil laugh filled the air.

****

"Naki!" her mother called out. It seemed futile, as they were pretty sure their daughter would still be in the hands of that gigantic Skullgreymon they saw on the broadcast. However, they were on the street the news had shown, and still nothing. It was a long run, but one they were more than willing to make. Somewhere along that street, their daughter was in danger.

"Naki!" called out Salamon. The two digimon had digivolved to Rookie the instant they reached the street. "Naki, where are you?!"

"Naki!" Patamon and Mr. Yasushi called out as well. Still, no answer came.

"This is making me angry," said Salamon, not the least bit joking. "You'd think a Skullgreymon would just pop out at you or something."

"Just keep going," Patamon answered. "We'll find him and Naki, no matter how long it takes."

After a few minutes of running along the decimated streets of what used to be Odaiba's main street, the group came to a grisly scene. An emergency hospitalization unit had been set up by several members of the local hospital. Many police officers and digimon were in the area. The less injured ones were waiting their turns to be cared for, while those with serious injuries were receiving immediate attention. It was difficult to wade through the rushing doctors and medical personnel, and it wasn't long before one of them questioned the newcomers about their presence there.

"Hey, what are you four doing here?" a nurse asked. "This is a restricted area! You should be evacuated!"

"We're trying to find our daughter," Mr. Yasushi said. "She was the girl shown in the emergency broadcast. We think our son might be with her." He pulled out his wallet and showed tiny pictures of each of them. "Do you know where either of them are?"

The nurse shook his head. "Sorry, I haven't seen either of them."

"Have you seen a black-colored Agumon or a Betamon?" asked Patamon. "They're probably looking for the kids too."

"Sorry, no," the man answered again. "Listen, I've gotta get back to work. I suggest you evacuate as soon as possible. This is a very dangerous area, considering out proximity to the battle."

"Battle...?" said Salamon softly. She looked further down the street, and was able to make out several figures battling in the skies above. They zipped and zagged around the tall buildings and small skyscrapers that lined the streets, and shot powerful attacks back and forth as they fought. Instincts within the tiny digimon rose to the surface, and her blood started pumping. "We've gotta get there! They must be fighting that monster that has Naki!"

"Right!" the others said. They ran off, but the nurse stopped them.

"Wait a sec! You can't go there!"

"Out of our way!" Mrs. Yasushi said angrily. "My daughter is in danger!" She ran off, followed by the other three. The man was about to go after them, but an order from the doctor he assisted forced him to forget the quartet.

****

**"RRRAHH!"** cried Imperialdramon as a powerful blast from Daemon knocked the wind out of the Ultimate-level digimon and sent him crashing to the ground with a loud slam. When the dust settled, the bodies of Veemon and Wormmon were all that remained, and they looked in worse shape than normal.

"Veemon!" Davis and Ken ran over to where their digimon had crash-landed, and cradled them in their arms as the battle continued to rage above them. Neither one looked ready to get up yet, but they insisted on trying.

"Da...vis," the blue digimon said weakly. "Use...a digi-egg...still...must fight..."

"Veemon, you can barely talk, let alone digivolve. Besides, I don't think Flamedramon or Raidramon will do much good against Daemon." Davis held his weakened partner close. "Just rest and keep your fingers crossed."

Metalgarurumon and Wargreymon landed on two separate skyscrapers, which remained sturdy even under their weight. Japanese structures were built to last, especially in a world where monsters are real and plentiful. Daemon hovered above a third, powering up for a deadly attack.

**_"I've got something for you two! FLAME INFERNO!!"_** The powerful attack shot forth from Daemon's hands, causing extremely hot flames to spray all across the horizon. Metalgarurumon and Wargreymon avoided the attack, but the skyscrapers weren't able to do anything but submit to the raging fires.

Flying in a wide circle, the two digimon launched their attacks at 10 and 2 o' clock. The cries of "Metal Wolf Claw!" and "Terra Force!" filled the air, and the respective attacks shot through the skies above Odaiba. Daemon easily swatted the attacks aside like they were so much rubbish, which did nothing for the two mega-digimons' confidence but allowed Lillymon and Sylphimon to get clean shots at Daemon's back.

"He's been taking steroids since our last fight," said Sora, trying to joke to keep the others' spirits high. "Naki must have done more than 'complete' him."

"What's taking Izzy so long?!" growled Tai. "The digimon can't keep this pace up for long!"

"Hit the deck!!" shouted Matt, who grabbed Sora and dove on her to protect her. Tai and the others cleared the area as well, just before Metalgarurumon plummeted like a falling star into the concrete street. The ground shook like a miniature earthquake had hit, and bits of the street showered all over the place. The large digimon wasn't moving.

Matt quickly got up and ran over to his companion. "Metalgarurumon!!" He did his best to shake the digimon's body, which was easily ten times his size. He didn't move, from Matt or otherwise. Sora stood by with worry, and she hoped that Garudamon wouldn't have to suffer that much. Tai looked at Metalgarurumon's lifeless body, as well as Matt and Sora's expressions. This was bad.

"We've gotta do something fast!" said Joe, carefully tracking the fight above. "If this keeps up, our digimon won't be able to last all of Izzy's fifteen minutes."

"How long has it been?!" Tai asked.

"Seven minutes."

Tai sighed inwardly. They couldn't last any longer. Although Tai hated to admit it, there was only one thing they could do. "Then that had better be enough. You guys start retreating. Wargreymon and I will cover your escape."

"What?!" said Davis in reply. "You're crazy if you think we're leaving now!"

"Davis, look at Veemon!" Tai shouted. "Look at all the digimon! They can't take much more of this! There's nothing we can do against Daemon now that he's combined with Naki! He's at least twice as strong as before, maybe even more!"

"So?!" Davis said stubbornly. "He can be ten times as strong, I don't care! We're going to stop him, right here and now, and that's final!" He turned to Veemon, who nodded and zoomed off to re-enter the fight after Davis used the digi-egg of Courage on him.

Tai didn't know how to respond to that. He felt the same way as Davis, but common sense told him that they couldn't last much longer. It wouldn't be much longer until Wargreymon and the others came tumbling down like Metalgarurumon did, and Daemon's sights would be set on them. As a politician, he knew it was the needs of the many that outweighed the needs of the few.

But Davis' eyes reminded him of what the child of Courage believed. The needs of the one outweighed everything. Naki needed them, and their digimon need them. They couldn't run now. He had to give it everything he had until things went the right way.

Tai looked at the others, and smiled the wickedly confident grin that he was known for when he was still eleven and wearing goggles in his big, bushy hair. The others knew what that grin meant. Win, lose, or draw, he was ready to fight to the end. Now, as a team, so were they.

_Courage..._

"Alright guys!" Tai cheered. "Let's show Daemon what we're made of!"

_Friendship..._

Matt grinned slyly and nodded. "Yeah. We're not going down without a fight."

"Yeah! Daemon can't beat us if we all do this together!" shouted Davis.

_Love..._

"We can't give up! There's too many people counting on us!" Sora added.

_Sincerity..._

"I'm so scared...but I won't let you guys down," said Mimi softly. "Count me in!"

"Me too!" said Yolei. "That thing owes us for what he did twenty-five years ago!"

_Knowledge..._

Izzy punched away at the vidphone keys as fast as he could. _Don't worry guys...I won't let you down. My reputation as a genius is at stake!_

_Reliability..._

"No matter what it takes...I'm with you guys," Joe added.

"You can count on me too," Cody said. "I know this thing has a weakness. We just have to find it."

_Hope..._

"No matter what the powers of darkness throw at us, we'll always win!" said TK enthusiastically. "Just don't stop believing in yourselves!"

_Light..._

"We can win if we do this together!" Kari cried. "Not even Daemon can destroy the light inside us! Because we're...

(All:) "The Digidestined!!"

Daemon felt something strange. Down below, something was happening that even he couldn't comprehend. If that weren't enough, something seemed to be happening to the digimon he was fighting. After a powerful swat at Wargreymon that should have sent him tumbling, the Mega-digimon simply turned to look at him again. His icy red eyes hidden deep within his armored head stared at him without fear. It was Daemon's turn to be worried.

_*slam!!*_ Another blow from Daemon. The hit connected with Wargreymon's face full-on, but again the digimon just turned and looked at him.

"It's over, Daemon," he said in his deep voice. The other digimon still fighting flew until they had surrounded the monster.

**_"You can't scare me, fool!"_** the evil digimon roared as he brought his hands up and let loose with a powerful Flame Inferno that should have incinerated them all to a crisp. Surprisingly, the attack did nothing. Daemon looked in fear at the digimon slowly surrounding him.

"We're the digimon chosen to help the Digidestined," said a really tattered Lillymon. "You can't beat us Daemon. Naki won't let you... not while she feels the strength of our friends."

**_"What...? You...you're lying! She has no power over me!"_**

"Oh no?" Sylphimon said with a smile. "Then how do you explain your much weaker right hook?" the DNA digimon asked teasingly.

Daemon growled angrily and charged straight at Sylphimon. **_"I'll show YOU a weak right hook!"_** The digimon swung several times at the smaller, Ultimate-level digimon and connected every time. However, even after five or six hits, Sylphimon was still floating there and smiling at the larger foe.

Daemon seemed to accept the fact that he was weakened, but still he smiled (although this wasn't apparent to the other digimon). **_"Well... I bet you think you have me beat?"_**

"You can't even hurt an Ultimate level digimon a forth your size," said Garudamon. "I think it's safe to say you're beaten."

Daemon chuckled evilly. **_"So long as those 'kids' are weakening me, that's true. So long as..."_** Before the others could grab him, Daemon zoomed down and made a beeline for the gathering of Digidestined in the street below where MetalGarurumon lay.

"Stop him, quick!" shouted Lillymon. All the digimon pursued Daemon, though it seemed he would still reach the Digidestined before their guardians could. The men and women below weren't sure what to do. They couldn't run or hide from this guy.

"Scatter!" shouted Tai. The others obeyed, except Matt, who remained at Metalgarurumon's side. He didn't care about his own safety at that moment- he wanted to be by his friend's side. Daemon laughed as he came to a halt above Metalgarurumon's body.

**_"Say goodbye, Digidestined!"_** Daemon shouted.

"MATT!!" cried Sora, who ran out to her beloved as fast as she could. 

**_"FLAME..."_**

"SORA, MATT, NO!!!" Tai shouted when he saw what was happening. Sora practically fell into Matt's arms, and they both shut their eyes as their doom approached.

**_"...INFERNO!!"_** Daemon's arm shot forward, but instead of the expected attack there came... trembling? The other digimon came to a halt before Matt, Sora, and Metalgarurumon. Daemon stared down at his own arm with disbelief as it continued to tremble.

"What's happening?" Davis said in disbelief as he ran up to where Flamedramon stood.

**_"My arm...no, it's impossible."_** Daemon cluched his own head as a high pitched whistle seemed to fill the air. The Digidestined looked down at their digivices as they started to glow with brilliant intensity.

"Our digivices!" Ken held his up as it whistled with energy. "Izzy must have done it!"

"It's about time," Tai said happily.

"Now you're going to get what's coming to ya!" Yolei said. "Now the whole world is going to show you what we think of your 'ambitious conquering'!"

**_"This can't be...the girl...she's only a-"_**

"Human?" TK finished for him. "Well, it's about time you learn just what one human can do when the whole world is behind her!"

Daemon's body began to glow as it seemed to crack in various places around his frame. He looked down in horror as his own body seemed to turn against itself. Red light spewed outward from the cracks in his digital body, and he yelled out in pain as he felt every bit in his body separate due to the will of another. Within moments, it became too much to bear.

**_"NOOOOO!!"_** With one last cry of pain, Daemon burst into a huge explosion of data that sprayed outword like a super-nova. Every viral bit that was Daemon depixelated into the surrounding environment with a loud roar, before fading into silence. A deep, painful silence.

"Is it over?" asked Sora, breaking the silence.

"It has to be," Cody said. "Everyone has a digivice, so he couldn't infect somebody else. He's gone for good this time."

"Yeah...but where's-"

"Tohru, Naki!!" cried a woman as she and a man stopped just beside the Digidestined. They had two digimon with them, Patamon and Salamon, who seemed amazed at all the huge digimon present. When the woman had caught her breath, she turned to the nearest person (Joe) and asked "Have you seen two children, a boy and a girl, anywhere here? Please tell me you have!"

Joe looked at the woman somberly. "Are you...Naki's mother, miss?"

"We're her parents," said the man. "Do you know her?"

"Uh...yes."

"Well, was she here?"

The Digidestined looked at the spot where Daemon had exploded. The concrete there was still crackling with tiny red and black streaks of lightning, which continued to criss-cross along the shattered remains of the street until finally they disipated. None of them wanted to say what was on their minds, because they knew what would result. The Yasushis were quick to pick up on this, and their faces started to cloud over with pain.

Izzy ran up, panting for breath and cheering at the same time. "Prodigious! We did it, you guys! I can't believe it worked, but we actually did it!" When nobody shared his enthusiasm, Izzy realized that he was missing something. He looked and watched as the two parents started to weep in each other's arms, along with their digimon. It was painful to watch.

"Our Naki...our little girl..." muttered Mrs. Yasushi as she cried into her husband's shoulder.

"No..." Salamon cried softly. "Naki..."

The Yasushi Patamon wasn't as quiet about his emotions. The little digimon did the loudest 'roar' a digimon like him could muster, and fell to the ground once again. Slowly, his tears began to fall, and like the others he started to cry for the girl they lost. Seeing this, Sora and Mimi started to cry as well.

"We...we couldn't save her," Sora whimpered.

Ken too started to feel a heavy sorrow in his chest. He was all to familiar with death, and the powers of darkness to boot. Having both of them in the same situation was not something he looked forward to. "I can't believe...we lost."

Wormmon tried to say something consoling. "But we didn't lose. We stopped Daemon, Ken. We saved the world."

"But we let someone die because of it," said Flamedramon. "That's just as bad as losing."

Tai listened as the others started to cry. He didn't join them in their mourning, because he refused to believe that Naki was dead. There was no way he was going to let an innocent girl die because of an evil monster like Daemon.

_*scritch-scratch*_

"Wha..." Tai snuck over to where the hole Daemon's explosion made was, and listened carefully for the sound he just heard. Again, the scratching noise reached his ears, and he thought he heard a whimpering noise as well. Tai's eyes widened, and he jumped down into the sewer rubble. The others looked at him in confusion. They heard him moving rocks out of the way. He called out, "Hey, help me out here!"

Flamedramon leaped over, as did Sylphimon and Lillymon (all of whom could comfortably fit into the small sewer confines) and assisted Tai. The stronger of the Digidestined, along with Mr. Yasushi, pried away the rock rubble until finally, they could hear a soft voice from within.

"...Daddy?" 

Mr. Yasushi's smiling face told them who they had found. Reaching into the rubble and pulling out the young girl inside, he held her protectively and lovingly as he cried for joy.

"Naki... my dear, sweet Naki... I'm so glad you're safe."

Naki looked up at her father and those around him, but it was difficult to see the others without her glasses. "Daddy...I...I'm sorry for what I've done. I didn't mean to hurt everybody..."

"Shh," he whispered. "Don't apologize for things you didn't do. Save your strength for your mother. She's going to squeeze the life out of you in a moment."

"Huh?"

When the others outside the sewer saw that Naki had been found, they cheered joyously and celebrated. Even the digimon (all of whom had reverted to Rookie now that the fight was over) jumped around happily. Mrs. Yasushi and the two digimon companions of her and her husband leaped down into the hole and glomped Naki with a series of hugs and kisses. A scene that made the entire battle seem like a distant memory in the minds of everyone present.

****

The police took over the scene once they arrived, which allowed the Digidestined the chance to take their tired digimon companions and head for home. Even if they had saved the world, everyone had work to do tomorrow, and lives to live. Before they had a chance to leave, Tai managed to catch Sora and Matt.

"Oh, uh, hi Tai," said Sora unsurely. Now that the battle was over, she wondered if Tai was going to start acting weird around her again.

Tai seemed a bit nervous. He turned to Matt, and asked politely, "Do you mind if I talk to Sora for a moment, please?" Matt seemed suspicious of what he would be telling her if he wasn't allowed to hear it, but he complied with a silent nod. He walked off a few yards with Gabumon, Biyomon, and Agumon and chatted with them for a little while.

Tai ran a hand through his short hair nervously. "I, um... have to apologize to you for something."

"Something?"

"Yeah. I'm sure you've noticed that I haven't been myself lately."

Sora smiled. "That's kind of ironic. To me, you were acting like you were eleven again."

Tai's face turned slightly red. "So you noticed, then."

"Of course I did. Everybody noticed...except Matt, anyway. I think he's just trying not to pry."

Tai rubbed his jaw as a memory of one of their previous disagreements came to memory. "Good thing to." Sora laughed softly, while Tai remembered to keep on track. "Anyway, I'm sorry for acting that way."

"Why were you doing it in the first place? I thought you and I were...well, done," she said, unable to find a kinder word for it.

Tai put a hand over his heard and looked down. "I think this whole business of saving the world reminded me of what my...or _our_ childhood was like. Throw in the crests...and maybe a little trouble at home and you have a forty-year-old man remembering a crush he had thirty years ago."

"Trouble at home?"

"Yeah...my wife and I had a fight before we left. It was about Junior."

"Junior?" Sora giggled. "Since when was your son named Junior?"

Tai smiled. "That's what I've started calling him, ever since his hair started growing out. He's started acting a lot like me."

"Heaven forbid, a Tai Jr. is running around!" Sora teased. They both shared a laugh.

"Anyway...he's been doing poorly at school, and his mother thinks it's because of soccer. I, of course, don't believe that. We ended up yelling at each other, and we haven't talked since I left for the UN meeting."

"...Kinda reminds me of when you and I were together."

"Exactly. I think I was afraid of what this could mean, so I remembered what I did for you when we fought. I remembered the letter I 'accidently' sent you. I guess I went a little off track, and this whole thing made it worse."

Sora smiled and nodded slowly. "We had a lot of fun in those days. Sometimes I wish we could have been kids forever."

Tai sighed deeply. "I've wished for that every day of my life." Then, he chuckled and wiped his face with his hands. "Maybe that's why this happened."

"Do you think you'll be okay now?" she asked, showing concern for her friend. "We can't have our leader losing his edge."

Tai shook his head. "I'm not the leader anymore; I saw that today. Today was the last time the Digidestined would be together." The train of thought grew more and more depressing in Tai's mind. "Someday... everything we were... everything we did will be forgotten."

Sora put a hand on Tai's shoulder. "Don't say that. Even if we're too old to be Digidestined, someone else will probably come to take our places. Even if the Digidestined do disappear forever one day, we'll always remember what happened."

Tai looked at her, a soft smile crossing his lips. "You're right. You always were good at cheering people up."

Sora laughed. "Thanks. I'd better start working my magic on Matt; he looks like he's getting anxious." They looked over at Matt, who was trying to ignore the length of their conversation. Tai caught the other man's eyes, and gave him a goofy smile. Matt tried not to smile, and the digimon with him giggled.

"Well, you two take it easy," said Tai. "I have to get home."

"And do what?" Sora asked. "Something good, I hope."

Tai smiled. "I have an apology letter to write," he said. Without saying another word, Tai headed off into the sunset, with Agumon following him and asking what he was so happy about.

****

_Tai:_ So, you can see we're still having adventures. They're just a little different than the ones we used to have when we were kids. The darkness has not been conquered, and it will continue to fight against the light forever. 

_Tohru was unsure of what Naki was trying to show him, but he was scared as heck. Luckily, Naki showed him something that he was overjoyed to see. A tiny, multi-colored egg that hatched at Tohru's touch..._

_Tai: _But as long as people remember to follow their dreams, evil will be kept at bay. And on days like today, it's hard to see any darkness anywhere. Now it's up to our children, and to children everywhere, to follow their dreams. Who knows where they'll end up... 

_Elecmon looked over at a small digimon, a tiny Yokomon, who didn't join the other baby digimon in welcoming Naki, her little brother, and Betamon. She looked at Elecmon nervously, who led the shy digimon to the girl. Naki and the baby digimon looked at her curiously. Naki politely bowed to the tiny Yokomon, and the Yokomon surprised Naki with a little token of their new friendship..._

A digivice.

_Tai: _But the only way to find out is to take the first step into adventure...


End file.
